Thursday, April 18, 2024

Tag: Six Day Racing

Diaries

Rotterdam Six Day 2012 – Day Five; Dernys

Dernys, you love them or you hate them, they’re a big part of the Sixes; and always with a capital ‘D’ — Roger Derny et Fils first manufactured them in Paris, in: 1938. There’s some real Derny history on the boards here at the Rotterdam Six Day — the tall, slim, grey haired man who chases the riders up to their events here at the is Bruno Walrave.
Diaries

Rotterdam Six Day 2012 – Day Four

It's Day four at the Rotterdam Six Day 2012, and like it says on the report cards; 'could do better!' We're referring of course to 'our Alex's' time keeping - he missed the rolling presentation on Sunday. It's not a huge deal because at the time he had no partner, poor Stöpler having crashed out.
Diaries

Rotterdam Six Day 2012 – Day Three

The 'Devil' had just started in Day three of the Rotterdam Six Day 2012 when I wandered down the stairs in search of bottles of water (still - no gas), and by the time I got back what should have been ‘just another race’ had become another of those episodes which remind you that as well as being glamorous, the sport is also a very dangerous one.
Diaries

Rotterdam Six Day 2012 – Day Two

It's not a proper Six Day unless it's a marathon to get there - and really you should arrive in a different country. My journey to the Rotterdam Six Day 2012 meant a super-early start, Transit van to West Craigs, cab to Edinburgh airport, plane to Amsterdam, train to Rotterdam, Metro to the Ahoy Stadium - then walk across the road.
Interviews

Dirk Van Hove – Gent’s ‘Honorary Aussie’ and the man behind the ‘Aussie Cup’

He’s more Australian than most folks from ‘Down Under’ - despite the fact that he’s from Gent in the heart of Flanders. He’s currently writing a history of Australian cycling, he’s the Drapac team’s European Co-ordinator, he’s a photographer at the Gent Six Day, and he’s VeloVeritas' biggest asset and chauffeur at Het Nieuwsblad. He’s Dirk Van Hove.
Diaries

Zürich Four Day 2011 – Days Three & Four

It's 11:29 on Sunday, somewhere on an autobahn in Bavaria. The race finished at 02:30 but it was around 03:45 before we got away from the track. We parked up at 05:00 at a motorway services and rose at 10:15; we're en route Düsseldorf, which will take us the best part of the day. It's all part of the game.
Diaries

Zürich Four Days 2011 – Day Two

The hotel I'm in for the Zürich Four Days 2011 is nice, a double bed, en-suite shower and beautiful breakfast spread - but it's a logistical pain. Kris has to 'make massage' with Jesper at lunchtime, but I don't want to hang around the hotel all morning - there's work to do at the track. I had to scrounge a lift - always a pain.
Diaries

Zürich Four Days 2011 – Day One

From the chaos emerged a track centre bar and restaurant, cabins for us, work space for the mechanics - and something to race on. I can't say too much about the track - or Pete will slap me, but it obviously can't be as smooth as a permanent one. The stadium restaurant is good; we get one meal each day - last year it was two. Maybe they figure that since it's only four days we don't need fed as much?
Diaries

Zürich Four Days 2011 – Getting Ready

Monday passed in a trice - a motorway is motorway and a Formule 1 hotel is a Formule 1 hotel. Now it's 14:15pm on Tuesday and hard to imagine the building site I'm sitting in the midst of will be hosting the Zürich Four Days 2011 in a little over 24 hours. But it has to - first and foremost, the Sixes are a business proposition.
Diaries

Gent Six Days 2011 – Now, to Zürich

It's a long way from Gent Six Days 2011 to Zurich, around 800 kilometres - so best get on the road early. We picked up Jesper at the Expo Holiday Inn - where Vik and I have stalked the mechanics at many's a Het Volk - and then we were offski.
Diaries

Gent Six Days 2011 – Night Six

On the one hand, the 18:00 finish is cool; but on the other, the lunch time kick off means that the last day is pretty hectic for the support staff. The result was never really in doubt and I thought that the last chase was poor. But I said all of that yesterday - and what I'm not taking account of is the huge gaps in the Six Day programme.
Diaries

Gent Six Days 2011 – Night Five

We used to get to park the camper inside the old exhibition hall which ajoins the velodrome - but 'safety' means we have to park outside, adjacent to the old hall. In the morning it means you have a long walk to the shower, previously you could lurch the 10 metres, zombie-like, to the shower cubicle and be reborn.
Diaries

Gent Six Days 2011 – Night Four

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 !
Diaries

Grenoble Six Day 2011 – Sixth Night

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.
Interviews

Don Allan – Six Day Legend, Part Two

In the first part of our interview with Australian ace Don Allan we discussed his road career, for the second part we talk about his 107 Six Day starts - that's 642 days on the boards; 92 weeks.
Interviews

Don Allan – Six Day Legend, Part One

f you know your Six Day stats then you'll be aware that the Australian pairing of Danny Clark and Don Allan is the ninth most successful ever, based on wins, with 15; but fifth most successful ever based on points from top four finishes - 15 wins, 15 second places, 11 third places and 12 fourth places.
Interviews

Andreas Müller – “I Could Ride Madisons All Day!”

It's hard to break into the six day circuit; but if there's a local rider with promise or a road star that needs mentoring then there has to be a rider on the circuit to provide hands on guidance. Enter Austria's Andreas Müller. Müller was a member of the German track squad during the last decade with strong results, like silver in the 1999 Moscow World Cup team pursuit; Madison bronze in the Chinese round of the World Cup in 2002 and Madison gold in the Moscow and Sydney rounds of the 2003 World Cup.
Interviews

Marc Hester – Dreaming of Success on Road and Track

In any sport there comes a time when the order changes, the old stars fade away and the new ones begin to shine brighter. But Dane Marc Hester is no super nova, shining brightly then gone, it's taken him several years to get to where he is in the Six Day constellation.
Interviews

Peter Traynor – The Man Behind the Madison Music

If you ever decide to promote a Six Day race there's a check list you'll have to go through. Start with a short steep indoor track; the best riders you can afford; food and drink concessions; a cool light show; a good 'speaker'; maybe some live acts-but one of your key ingredients will be music. Enter Peter Traynor, originally from the Wirral Peninsula across the Mersey River from Liverpool - the city that gave us the Beatles and the 'Mersey Sound'.
Six Days

The Time Capsule: Colby Pearce – An American Team in the Six Days

The experienced American rider Colby Pearce was one of the guys looked after by Kris, Martin and Ed at some of this winters' Six Days, including the recent event at the Ballerup Stadium in Copenhagen. Having raced at elite level on the track at the Olympics, at World Cups and in the World Championships, as well as being a National Champion 14 times and holder of the US Hour Record (50.191), together with a spell working as the US Track Coach, Colby had seen most of what track cycling had to offer. One element was missing though: Six Day Racing...
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At Random

Interviews

Michael Mørkøv – Deceuninck’s Danish World Champion

Multiple Danish Champion on the track, European Champion and now three time World Champion; Michael Mørkøv has always been happy to give of his time to us and we had to catch up with him after his latest triumph in the Madison.
Interviews

Ellie Stone – “Track cycling is so much faster than running!”

Ellie Stone is reigning British 500 metre Time Trial and Keirin champion – but despite these successes she’ll not be riding either event at the Commonwealth Games in England - rather she'll be piloting a tandem in the para cycling events; the Kilometre Time Trial on Sunday July 31st and the Match Sprint on Friday 29th July.
Interviews

John Atkins – Britain’s greatest ever cyclo-cross rider; 13 times a British Champion

John Atkins is Britain’s greatest ever cyclo-cross rider; 13 times a British champion and still the nation’s best ever finisher in the Worlds – and at a time when ‘cross gods, the de Vlaeminck brothers were at their zenith. He lives quietly in retirement in Wales, doesn’t ‘do the internet’ and isn’t a man for the ‘stats.’ He was surprised we wanted to speak to him but gave freely of his time and anecdotes. Here’s what John had to say to VeloVeritas just after young van der Poel had won the Worlds in Tabor.
Race Reviews

Commonwealth Games 2014 – Track, Day Three

Australia had another great day at the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome, collecting another five medals to add to the previous two days haul of ten, putting them top of the cycling table with six more than any other country. For the second day in a row, the Men's Para Tandem provided one of the most memorable moments. This time it was the Sprint competition and again it was the Scottish pair of Neil Fachie and Craig MacLean, winning the final two-matches-to-one and celebrating with their families whilst the crowd joined in singing to them, who brought the proceedings to a halt.
Interviews

Marvin Smart – Track ‘Runner’ and Ad Signage Guru

Our old friend and former Six Day man, ‘Brit,’ Norman Hill suggested to us that we should ‘have a word’ with the man who was his Six Day ‘runner’ on the winter boards circuit back when there were up to 17 Six Day races every winter, Marvin Smart, who was also an innovator in the field of advertising on the actual track surface – such an important factor in a Six Day organiser’s budget plans.
Garmin Physio Toby Watson

Time to Regroup (Preview: TDF 2012 Stage 12)

Time to Regroup. After the savagery of yesterday’s stage, today is very likely to be a neutral stage from the GC boys’ point of view. There are big hills in it, but they are very early in the stage. Hence those who played big roles late in the climb yesterday will likely be riding small, tucked into the bunch conserving energy.

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