VeloVeritas

Gent Six Days 2011 – Night Four (0)

Whether it’s a great edition of the Gent Six Days or not, it’s still quite an experience to walk up through the tunnel for the first time.

Especially if the Dernys are up on the track droning out their monotonous tune, there’s the buzz of a thousand conversations, the lights, the throng, the smell of beer, the renners flashing around the bankings, the people piled high up to the roof in the corners – We love it !

Gent Six Day 2010 – Nights Five and Six, Iljo-Schep Hold On (0)

It’s Monday morning, I’m sitting in some horrible ‘theme’ bar at Charleroi Airport. My flight home to Edinburgh is cancelled due to the snow in Auld Scotia and the best I could wangle was Charleroi to Dublin, tonight then Dublin to Prestwick in the morning. My pal Dave has booked me into a hotel at Dublin airport, so I’m as sorted as I can be.

The alternative flight from here was late on Wednesday night. The six all seems a long time ago…

Gent Six Day 2010 – Fourth Night, Big Bob and Danny Take Over (0)

Last year’s Under 25 winner, big Aussie, Alex Carver just landed on the boards, somewhere close to my right ear. Meanwhile, down in the cabin, all of our guys sleep peacefully.

It was mozzarella and ham salad followed by chicken and spaghetti for dinner and a post dinner nap (on the floor) is the last luxury they’ll enjoy, tonight.

Sure enough, the race hasn’t long started and the dope test guys arrive – just like Elliot Ness and the Untouchables; but without the Armani suits – one guy tells me his day job is a plumber – the riders are suitably underwhelmed…

Gent Six Day 2010-Third Night, Iljo Keeps the Lead but Frays a Little (0)

I just received an email from Rapha; “The New Tweed Softshell and City Riding Collection” – that’s exactly what I need, tweed. Set a new trend at the Kuipke…

Maybe not – my shorts have caused enough raised eyebrows.

Night three? Lots of Dernys, lots of beer – Franco sick, Iljo fraying a little at the edges, the Danes calm under fire and bed for us at 03:45…

Gent Six Day 2010-Second Night, Local Leaders Keisse-Schep (0)

It would be easy to go native, work all the sixes, get a job in a bike shop or with a little team for the summer, forget the “25″ champs, the ‘day job.’

The sixes are seductive, the rolling presentation, the music, the lights, the banter, the ‘insider’ chat, the gleaming bikes, the pretty girls, the total isolation from reality.

But maybe it’s because it’s only three or four times each year that it’s so special.

Gent Six Day 2010-First Night, De Ketele-Lampater Take It Up (0)

Last night? It’s tonight, already!

No-one stood out, the home boys had to be seen to do well and De Ketele, Mertens, and of course Iljo, all did the biz.

Who can win? Alex & Michael are favourites but it’s been a long season for both of them and there are some hungry big fish in this pond…

Gent Six Day 2010-D Minus One (1)

Monday night, 24 hours until the 70th Six Days of Gent commences.

The Derny exhaust fumes are sweet and sickly, like the stench from the Grangemouth chemicals plant on a bad day, the cold air makes them all the more pungent. Five or six riders sit behind the little bike, loosening off stiff legs, dull after hours sitting in aeroplanes or cars.

They’re all wrapped up tight against the cold – Michael Morkov, Steve Schets, Tosh Van Der Sande, Kenny de Ketele and Iljo Keisse. De Ketele wears a balaclava under his crash hat; Iljo has on gloves and leg warmers.

Gent Six Day 2009 Finalé-Revisited (0)

The Gent Six day kicks off next week, so as a way to build the excitement we thought we’d revisit last year’s finalé, with VeloVeritas’ own Ed Hood there and working for the Danish World Madison Champions, Saxo Bank riders Alex Rasmussen and Michael Mørkøv, as well as Swiss star Franco Marvulli. Read on!…

Gent Six Day 2009-Nights Five and Six (0)

The A2 Dover to London road, 23:23 on Sunday.

There was no partying at Iljo’s dad’s bar, De Karper – which is just along the road from the Gent track – for us tonight; we had a ferry to catch.

I didn’t have time to put together a Day Five piece, today. We were up at 09:00 for the 13:00 start; usually I spend the early afternoon writing, but today I couldn’t, although I did manage to get the Day Five pictures away as the under 23 lads prepared for action.

Gent Six Day 2009-Night Four (1)

Viktor has been keeping in touch, he was going to come over but couldn’t get a flight. ‘Is that Bruno’s wee brother’s bike he’s on?’

He does have a point, with carbon frame manufacture, one of the biggest costs is to produce the moulds.

This leads a lot of manufactures to go down a ‘one size fits all’ route – meaning a lot of seat post on show and/or stacking/high rise stems at the front end. For me, the classic look of Keisse’s bike is best – extension hard down on the head race and just the right amount of seat pin.

The atmosphere was great, again, last night – the track centre is alive.

Gent Six Day 2009-Night Three (1)

The Belgian papers are something else.

Whilst you do get superb cycling coverage; in yesterday’s ‘De Gentenaar’ we had to endure a colour photograph of a fatal road accident, complete with burnt out car and mangled push bike; a racist photo manipulation of Michelle Obama as a character from Planet of the Apes and images from a slaughter house, including a cow getting it’s head chopped off – I’ll stick with the Guardian.

My tortured old body is getting into the routine, now. It was 03:30 am when we got to bed; we could have been in bed before that, but a beer was necessary.

Gent Six Day 2009-Night Two (0)

It’s different here; the butcher asks you how Keisse is doing in the six and the local paper has Iljo in full colour, on the cover.

In the same paper – De Gentenaar – which is a local ‘rag,’ there’s a two page guide to track racing and two pages of stats on the 2009 season.

Columbia are top winners, with 85 (I thought it was 86 !): Saxo have 44: Diquigiovanni 33; Garmin 29; Rabobank 26; Cervélo 25 – first Belgian team, on 24, is QuickStep.

Gent Six Day 2009-Night One (0)

It was 1975 when Dave, Don, Ed the Pole and yours truly first climbed the concrete stairs to get our first sight of the legendary boards of Gent velodrome.

I still remember the smells; derny exhaust, pee, frying food and beer!

Having spent my formative years riding time trials and road races (badly !) in the wilds of Scotland, with sheep as the main audience, I was fascinated by the spectacle.

Gent Six Day 2009-Preview (0)

“When you see the track, you think, no way, I can’t ride that ! it’s too small !” and that’s from world madison champion, Michael Mørkøv.

Compared to the wide open 210 metre pastures of Grenoble, at 166 metres, the Gent track does look tiny; the bankings aren’t really steep enough and you can’t ride the top 400 mm of the track, because the crash barriers overlap the boards by that much.

But legends aren’t necessarily perfect; and this is a legendary place – it was 1922 when world hour record man, Oscar Egg partnered Marcel Buysse to victory in the first Six Days of Ghent, or Z6 Daagse Vlaanderen – Gent, as it is, now.