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Ashley Marshall at Revolution 22
Image courtesy of Larry Hickmott/British Cycling
It’s the last of the Revolution DHL Future Stars Boys races, the 5k Scratch, a small move has been caught and the bunch momentarily slows up – seizing his chance Velo’s rising star Ashley Marshall swoops from the banking and makes a brave bid for home. In front of 4,000 spectators, Ashley builds up a half lap lead and looks comfortable with seven laps to go. Cheered on by the very small contingent of Velo fans, he keeps spinning his black Dolan onward, eyes fixed ahead, maintaining his advantage. Things look even more promising when two more riders join him with three laps to go, they start sharing the workload but a lap later the bunch looks ominious, as series leader Sam Harrison injects a big surge of speed at the front...
To say Ashley Marshall has had an eventful last few months would be an understatement. Passing some strenous testing to get onto British Cycling’s Talent Team would be a great way to end a good season but there was more! He travelled to the Netherlands to compete in the Amsterdam Six and then found out he’d been picked to represent Yorkshire in the Winter Revolution series. He would not only be racing against the UK’s best young riders in the DHL Future Stars series, but would be rubbing shoulders and sharing pit space with world and olympic stars.
His first Revolution meeting didn’t go smoothly, crashing and ruining another pair of Velo shorts (to add to the others!) but Saturday night’s meeting went far better - Ashley finishing in the top half of the 30 rider field in the first two events (5k Points race and 6 lap Dash) and then capping his night with his move off the front towards the end of the 5k Scratch. His brave attempt came to nothing, as the very impressive welsh boy Sam Harrison swept him up on the way to his third victory of the night.
It was great watching Ashley racing in the velodrome, resplendent in his white Yorkshire team jersey and Velo shorts, flying the flag for our club, sponsor and charities. But the thing that stuck out for me was seeing him warming down in the central pit area. As I watched him slowly pedalling around, I realised he was only yards away from Chris Hoy, Jamie Staff, Steve Cummings and Geriant Thomas. Ashley was on the inside looking out, part of British Cycling’s production line of medal winners. For me and 4,000 others, spectating from afar is the closest we’ll ever get to stardom.
Read more about Revolution 22 and Ash's mention in despatches here |
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