VeloVeritas

Grenoble Six Days 2011 – Sixth Night (1)

Last day – it’s not a big programme, sprint series, team time trial and the closing 180 lap chase. By six day standards that’s not a long chase, around 38 K – at Copenhagen they have 300 lappers on a 250 track – but here, it’s heavy duty for the small teams.

Franco reckons that Kris and I should have dinner in the track centre, tonight – well, it sounded good to me.

Grenoble Six Days 2011 – Fifth Night (0)

Bed was at 02:00 am so I didn’t have too much problem getting up at 07:45 to do some ‘real world’ stuff.

The only trouble with that is I know I won’t feel nearly as frisky come 02:30 am.

I was meant to have an interview with Luke Roberts today, he was meant to get word about what’s happening team-wise for 2012.

Grenoble Six Days 2011 – Fourth Night (0)

It’s a glorious day in Grenoble, warm, calm, sunny – not a day to be stuck in a stuffy stadium. But that’s the runner’s place in the way of things – scrambled eggs on fresh baguettes for breakfast eased the pain.

The 35 minute chase was a better show tonight and the French guys didn’t get pummelled quite so savagely.

Grenoble Six Days 2011 – Third Night (0)

One day, I’d like to come here and sit at one of the big tables with friends and family, watch the cabaret, and the racing, chat, eat and drink too much.

It’s good value at 63 euros per head: that gets you in, allows you to attack the beautiful buffet and provides you a bottle of wine, mineral water and a coffee as you watch the racing and the cabaret – one day . . .

Grenoble Six Days 2011 – Second Night (0)

It takes a few days to find the rhythm of a six-day – usually for me it’s the sixth day. My feet stop hurting and I get a proper sleep.

Last night I slept ok ’til around 06:00 am but after that it was disjointed, the sound of the traffic and the drone of the refrigeration units on the restaurant supply tucks saw to that – not to mention the bizarre dreams.

Grenoble Six Days 2011 – First Night (0)

‘The track door will open at 09:30,’ we were told, but this is France and you have to give or take 45 minutes – and sure enough, we got in around 10:15.

Bring the last of the gear down from the camper, set up the track cabins, go to the shops for supplies, help the guys with their bikes, go to the shops for razors so Franco can shave his legs, help with the dinner, do the washing up and then slip out quietly when the riders all descend upon our cabin for their pre-race meeting.

Grenoble Six Days 2011 – D minus 1 (0)

It’s a grey morning in Grenoble; we can’t unload until 11:00 am and then we have to drive up to Lyon and collect Jesper and Marc off the plane.

In the stadium office they have great old black and white photos of the stadium under construction; it really is a gem of a building, if you like modern architecture.

Grenoble Six Days 2011 – D minus 2 (0)

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 rendez-vous was in Geneva, Switzerland.

Grenoble Six Day 2010, Night Six – Marvulli Again! (0)

The crowd is good, the riders’ contracts have been paid, there’s one more procession, one last picture of the Folies girls, I’ve polished Jens’ and Franco’s bikes, most of the stuff is out of the big cabin, the strongmen are going through their routine and there’s a buzz in the air.

The programme is short – just a 25 lap sprint series with points every five laps; the flying three lap time trial and then the big one – ’180 tours pro madison’ with sprints on 120, 140 and 160 for 5, 3, 2, 1 points and ‘points doublé lors du sprint de l’arrivée de 6 jours.’

Grenoble Six Day 2010, Night Five – Velocious Viviani (0)

There’s no telling what you’ll see when you walk up those stairs; you’d expect to see Teun Mulder on the rollers on his road bike or Shane Perkins on his track bike on the rollers-but a juggler?

The views over to the Alps were stunning this morning, the city is ringed on all sides by mountains; sit outside Bar Clemenceau with your beer, the autumn sun on your skin, look over to the Alps and it’s easy to think; ‘I could live here’…

Grenoble Six Day 2010, Night Four – Good Morale at the Track (0)

“Dirk, you’re working on the bikes early today,” says me.

“Yes, I must finish early so I can watch the darts on BBC TV in my camper van!” I didn’t expect that answer.

He was telling me that the new Look 496 track frame costs in excess of €6,000 and there’s a waiting list; they only build to order. They are beautiful though and as Dirk says; ‘it’s the best bike for the sprint and it’s a genuine European product.’

It’s cool and grey in Grenoble today – and very quiet…

Grenoble Six Day 2010, Night Three – Only Here (1)

“Only in Grenoble” is stamped in red on this file – a track standstill competition. If Vik was here he’d rush the track shouting bad things about la Belle France, the French, and their ways.

We’ve got 15 minutes on the clock and Daniel Mangeas hasn’t stopped talking for more than a few seconds as the big men twitch their muscles to keep those Looks stationary on the pine.

I know a little French but can’t summon up the interest to listen; the crowd adore it….

Grenoble Six Day 2010, Night Two – Getting the Job Done (0)

The average speed last night for the first madison of Night Two, run over 35 minutes, was 52.310 kph – file under ‘not as slow as Vik says it is.’

The thing you have to remember is that when you’re in Grenoble, you’re much closer to the Mediterranean than you are to the Channel; ‘le Munich six jours est finis? ah!’

The cold, grey North is a long way away…

Grenoble Six Day 2010, Night One – Politics and Plaudits (0)

There were politics in play before a ball was even kicked; ‘how have you guys got that big cabin, you only have two riders?’

Kris’s response was succinct; ‘Because I’ve been coming here for 30 years and the organisers are friends of mine!’ A six wouldn’t be a six without politics.

I was a bit ropey on the first night; ‘what happens now?’ flashed through my head a few times…

Grenoble Six Day 2010, Getting Ready (1)

“It’s not a real Six,” says our pal Viktor – coincidentally, riders like Marc Hester (Denmark) and Danny Stam (Holland) used to say the same. But that was before the Bremen Six disappeared – now they’re more than happy to head south to Grenoble at the end of October.

“Real” Six or not, the list of winners is pretty damn impressive – Post, Merckx, Sercu, Moser, Doyle, Clark, Baffi, Villa, Marvulli, Gilmore, Keisse, Rasmussen and Morkov.

I can’t remember how many times I’ve been here, but it’s never disappointing to drive down the valley road between the limestone cliffs and snow capped peaks beyond, to the ‘Capital of the Alps’…