| Team information | |
|---|---|
| UCI code | SKY |
| Registered | Manchester, United Kingdom |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Disbanded | 2013 |
| Discipline | Track cycling |
| Key personnel | |
| General manager | Shane Sutton |
Sky Track Cycling was a professional track cycling team competing in the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics series. The team, based at the Manchester Velodrome, was made up of British riders, including Olympic Gold medalists Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny, Victoria Pendleton and Jamie Staff. It is managed by Shane Sutton with Dave Brailsford acting as team representative.
Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using track bicycles.
Manchester Velodrome is an indoor Olympic-standard cycle-racing track in Manchester, England, which opened in 1994. Part of the National Cycling Centre, the facility has been home to British Cycling since 1994 and the five time Tour de France-winning UCI ProTeam Team Sky since it formed in 2009. The Manchester Velodrome has been cited as the major catalyst for Britain's successes in track and road cycling and has been described by Cycling Weekly as the "beating heart of British Cycling’s ascension to the top of world cycling".
The British people, or the Britons, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, by descent from British nationals. When used in a historical context, "British" or "Britons" can refer to the Celtic Britons, the indigenous inhabitants of Great Britain and Brittany, whose surviving members are the modern Welsh people, Cornish people, and Bretons. It may also refer to citizens of the former British Empire.
The team was launched in October 2008 with Hoy, Kenny, Pendleton, Staff, Ross Edgar and Shanaze Reade. [1] In the 2009 track cycling off-season, Reade was replaced by Peter Mitchell and Chris Newton. For the 2010–2011 season, Newton and Staff retired, Mitchell left the team, Reade made a return and Matthew Crampton joined the team. [2] The team remained unchanged for the 2011–2012 season. [3]
Ross Edgar is a Scottish track cyclist who represented Scotland at the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games, where he won a gold medal in the team sprint riding with Chris Hoy and Craig MacLean. He competed for Great Britain at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games
Shanaze Danielle Reade is a British Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer and track cyclist whose prime competitive years began in 2002. She has won the UCI BMX World Championships three times. Reade is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Irish mother.
Peter Mitchell is an English track cyclist, specialising in the individual and team sprints. In 2009, he was named in the Team Sky+ HD track cycling team alongside names such as Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendelton.
The team was not registered with the UCI for the 2013–14 track cycling season.
