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Grenoble Six Days 2011 – D minus 2

By Ed Hood

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HomeDiariesGrenoble Six Days 2011 - D minus 2
Grenoble Six Days 2011
Franco Marvulli.

Up at 04:30, the plan was to get the bus from Porty at 09:00 – however, and to cut a long story short, the van is abandoned in a western suburb of Edinburgh and a cab was flagged down to get me to the airport on time.

The flight was undramatic – thank God – and there was Kris in the airport bus park, with the camper.

It’s seems to be an unwritten law that you have to arrive in a different country from where the race is; so the rendezvous was in Geneva, Switzerland.

The drive down through the mountains was nice and we were soon braving the one way systems in Grenoble, ‘The Capital of the Alps.’

It was good to get our creds today – all time saved tomorrow – and grab a programme.

There’s little doubt that the world economic situation isn’t just affecting the road scene.

There are only 11 teams here, there used to be 13 or 14; there are no foreign sprinters, last year we had Shane Perkins – and the bottom end of the progie is sketchy.

Franco Marvulli and Alex Aeschbach of Switzerland are team number one, as befits ‘Recordman’ Marvulli with six of his career 26 wins coming under the soaring concrete wings of the Palais des Sports.

Team two is Martin Blaha and Jiri Hochmann (2010 Euro madison champions) from the Czech Republic; but Hochmann might well not be riding – suffering from the ill effects of a crash at Amsterdam.

Team three is Jesper Mørkøv and Marc Hester, the former is brother of Saxo pro Michael and the latter had a good season 2010/11 with countryman Jens Erik Madsen, including a podium, here in Grenoble.

Grenoble Six Days 2011
Marc Hester.

Team four is Kenny De Ketele (or Kenny ‘De Toaster’ as Cav would have it) and Tim Mertens, the young but experienced Belgian duo.

Grenoble Six Days 2011
Luke Roberts and Danny Stam.

Team five is a rampant Gentenaar Iljo Keisse straight off winning Amsterdam and the Euro madison with De Ketele, the next day – he’s paired with very classy French man, Morgan Kneisky the former world scratch champion.

Grenoble Six Days 2011
Danny Stam.

Team six is 39 year-old Dutch specialist Danny Stam and Aussie former team pursuit world champ Luke Roberts who won here with Franco in 2009.

After that, well…

But Nathalie’s pizzas are still the best and the top bunk of the camper was cosy.

Grenoble Six Days 2011
Le Palais.
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Grenoble Six Days 2011 – D minus 1
Ed Hood
Ed Hood
Ed's been involved in cycling for over 50 years. In that time he's been a successful time triallist, a team manager and a sponsor of several teams and clubs. He's also a respected and successful coach and during the winter months was often working in the cabins at the Six Days for some of the world's top riders. Ed remains a massive fan of the sport and couples his extensive contacts with an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the minutiae and the history of our sport. In February 2023 however, our dear friend and beloved colleague Ed suffered a devastating stroke and faces an uncertain future; Ed has lost his ability to speak, to read, and has lost movement on the right side of his body. He's working with speech and physical therapists on rehabilitation, but all strokes are different and each patient responds differently, so unfortunately recovery is one day at a time. Ed ran his own business installing windows, and will probably not be able to work again. Please consider joining us to make a contribution to Ed's GoFundMe page to help stabilise and secure his future.

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