Video: Longest Lap race causes controversy at latest round of Revolution Series

The Longest Lap race, based on the Marymoor Crawl, was back at the Revolution Series in Manchester last weekend. Firmly established as a crowd-pleaser, there was controversy as Adam Blythe and Ed Clancy were set to go head to head, but one was disqualified from the event.

To refresh you overthe rules, riders move forward towards the start line of the one-lap race, but don’t know exactly when the signal will be given for it to begin and in the meantime they cannot put a foot on the ground, impede another rider, grab a handrail or – crucially in this case – cross the start line.

Blythe in the colours of his new team, Orica-GreenEdge, was the rider who was disqualified and afterwards he explained what had happened.

“Some absolute halfwit in the stand whistled, and of course I was ready for a whistle or a gun,” he said.

“So I flinched, went forward a little bit over the line but then I rolled backwards properly, and they disqualified me.

“So technically I’d say I’ve won that because I was there really, ready to go”

Speaking of the winner, JLT-Condor’s Clancy, he added with a smile: “Hollow victory, innit, doesn’t mean anything for him, rubbish.”

“I personally just think he lost his balance,” laughed Clancy. “No, I think he got confused between the whistle and the gun.

“It’s good for me, I know he’s pretty good at balancing, he’s a lot better balancer there than I was, so I was hoping something went wrong.

“I enjoyed that, it’s a lot easier than the scratch race as well.”

There will be full highlights of last weekend’s racing on Channel 4 tomorrow morning at 7am and they will be available to view online on 4OD afterwards.

The next round takes place in Glasgow on Saturday 31 January; you can buy tickets online here or by calling See Tickets on 0844 854 2016.