Two legends of Rugby League go head to head in a celebrity Italian Pursuit at Revolution 23 on Saturday night. Denis Betts and Mike Forshaw both played for Wigan and England in their career but this time the ex-club mates will be squaring up on the Velodrome track.
The Italian Pursuit will kick off the programme with a mix of Future Stars, Endurance riders and sprinters making up the teams. Betts and Forshaw will race the first lap before peeling off to allow the Future Stars to take over. There will be legs from two elite women riders before some of the Olympic stars race it out over the final laps.
The event will continue the rugby theme in the Italian Pursuit following Martin Johnson’s appearance at Revolution 20 last season.
The full teams are as follows:
Home Straight – Dennis Betts, Ruby Miller, Lucy Martin, Simon Yates, Victoria Pendleton, Ed Clancy.
Back Straight –Mike Forshaw, Laura Trott, Katie Colclough, Sam Harrison, Anna Blyth, Jason Kenny.
The teams have been designed to be evenly matched with Pendleton and Clancy going against Blyth and Kenny over the last two laps. However, it is the start and first lap that can make the difference so the pressure will be on the rugby stars… who’s your money on?
What is the Italian Pursuit?
The Italian Pursuit is run slightly differently from the normal pursuit. The two teams line up at opposite sides of the track and after each lap the front rider peels off until there is one rider left on each team. These two then sprint it out to finish first.