Marymoor Crawl track race format coming to London this month (+ video)

The video we posted earlier this week of the Marymoor Crawl track race in the United States went down a storm, with lots of you wanting to see the format adopted at a track meet over here – and the good news is that organisers of the Revolution Series have told us they’ll be trialling it at the season opener in London later this month.

The race, at the July Marymoor Grand Prix track meet in Redmond, Washington State, begins with riders having to stay upright and behind the start line for up to four minutes before a bell rings, then the ones left in race one lap to determine the winner.

While waiting for that bell, anyone who places a foot on the ground, impeding another rider, grabbing the trackside handrail or crossing the start line is eliminated – putting paid to the chances of two thirds of the hopefuls before the race began in earnest.

We said we’d love to see it in the Olympics – okay, that was a bit tongue in cheek, but the next best thing would be to see it at the velodrome used at London 2012, so we were thrilled to get a tweet yesterday reading:  “Hey @roadcc we're going to trial this at Round 1 of @RevolutionUK in London on 25th Oct and get the pros to do it!”

With a wealth of top talent already confirmed for the event – Alex Dowsett, Ben Swift, Adam Blythe and Ian Stannard among them – we’re looking forward to seeing how some pros better known for turning on the power on the road are when it comes to standing still on the track.

They’ll be joined at the Lee Valley Velodrome by some ace track riders too, including one man who has already enjoyed success there at the highest level – Ed Clancy, winner of team pursuit gold and Omnium bronze at London 2012.

James Pope, managing director of organisers FACE Partnership, told road.cc: "I had never heard of the race before and came across the video online and loved it.

"It reminded me of the early seasons of Revolution where we used to do things like speed skaters verses cyclists, Hoy and Tournant in the Madison TT.

"These were always real crowd pleasers so I thought replicating the Marymoor Crawl would bring a bit of fun back to the Revolution programme and balance the serious racing.

"So we are going to give it a go in London at Round 1."

If successful, the race could become a regular fixture at the Revolution Series - fingers crossed!

Here’s the video again in case you missed it.