Peter Schep / Wim Stroetinga win, Franco and Mouris second, Stam/Havik third – a result which everyone is pretty happy with. The Dutch winners are the classic Six Day combo – big, strong, mature, silky smooth Peter Schep and the younger, smaller, more erratic but rapid Stroetinga.
Franco was good – very good, and Mouris is one big, strong, consistent ‘beast of a boy’.
I’ve never seen him ride so well, but riders tend to lift themselves when they get a big name partner – Mouris certainly did, he was rock solid in the chases.
Danny Stam and Yoeri Havik were third, maybe a bit of sentimentality in that placing – but it’s Danny’s last ever Dutch Six and there’s a crowd to please.
On the subject of Big Jens, I was having a look at his GreenEDGE road bike this morning, the new Scott with Di2.
Scott had no representation in the ProTour last year; they waited for the launch of the Aussie team to get back into the circus.
Alex was saying to me that if you’re training for the road season then riding a Six like Rotterdam isn’t ideal because there aren’t enough kilometres of racing.
That’s why he’s been doing anything between one and three hours on the road bike, every day.
Copenhagen, on the other hand is good because there are so many kilometres of racing.
Alex is highly motivated just now, the Copenhagen Six day is a big target, he’ll be: back with Michael Mørkøv – they’ll be hard to beat there.
I checked out the Stöpler crash on YouTube, I didn’t really want to but I did a wee news piece about the incident for VeloNation and I was doing a little homework for it.
[vsw id=”We017oqj2RE” source=”youtube” width=”615″ height=”450″ autoplay=”no”]
Interview with Nick Stöpler’s dad.
There’s no doubt that the injury was caused when his knee hit the metal fence strut at the top of the banking – not his ‘Sphinx’ bars as was first rumoured.
He came to call this evening, all smiles but it’ll be six weeks before he gets a proper indication of how the knee has responded to surgery.
It was more or less a full house tonight; when you stand and watch the rolling presentation with the lights, the lasers, the music, the riders in twos above the blue line and all those fans, you’re reminded of what a marvellous spectacle a Six Day is.
It would amazing to walk in to Rotterdam as your first taste of a Six Day – you couldn’t fail to be bowled over.
Fellow Scot Charline Joiner popped by for a chat, Alex was stunned; ‘there are women who speak the same as you, Ed?‘
She’s changed her focus to endurance from the sprint, lots of road miles mean that she’s more at home in the scratch and points races – events where she struggled a little last year.
Kirsten Wild was outstanding in the ladies’ races, obviously using them for training, making life much harder for herself than she really needed to.
I suppose Dekker has done his time but one would have imagined he’d be a little less high-profile – for a wee while at least.
The American sprinter Andy Lakatosh finally dipped under 11 seconds for the first time in the one lap test – 10.9 is just so much better than 11.00.
Mulder won the sprint tournament overall – but it’s Holland, isn’t it ?
Danny Stam was also a winner for Holland in the Dernys – his last time ever ride behind the little monsters on his home track.
He wasn’t emotional for his farewell presentation but on the podium at the end of the night you could see that it had finally hit him that the end is nigh.
The last chase wasn’t a classic, but it was good entertainment – complete with a spectacular crash when Havik and Ligthart hit the boards.
There was a full-blooded party going on when I dived down to the press lounge to get the pictures away – but no Amstel or red wine for Ed, not with 400 kilometres to drive to Bremen…
Rotterdam Six Day - Results from Day Six
Koppelkoers
1 4 Rasmussen – Pieters
2 5 Lampater – v Bon
3 3 Ligthart – Bartko
4 1 Stam – Havik
5 2 Terpstra – Keisse
6 8 Kreder W – Boskamp
7 10 Kreder R – Kreder
8 9 Mouris – Marvulli
9 13 Markus – Hester
10 12 Jonkman – Pronk
11 6 Schep – Stroetinga
12 11 Traksel – Vermeulen
Kopperafvalkoers
1 2 Terpstra – Keisse
2 13 Markus – Hester
3 11 Traksel – Vermeulen
4 3 Ligthart – Bartko
5 8 Kreder W – Boskamp
6 6 Schep – Stroetinga
7 10 Kreder R – Kreder M
8 9 Mouris – Marvulli
9 1 Stam – Havik
10 5 Lampater – v Bon
11 12 Jonkman – Pronk
12 4 Rasmussen – Pieters
Supersprint
1 11 Traksel – Vermeulen
2 4 Rasmussen – Pieters
3 10 Kreder R – Kreder M
4 9 Mouris – Marvulli
5 6 Schep – Stroetinga
6 2 Terpstra – Keisse
7 13 Markus – Hester
8 8 Kreder W – Boskamp
9 12 Jonkman – Pronk
10 3 Ligthart – Bartko
11 5 Lampater – v Bon
12 1 Stam – Havik
Derny's Finale
1 1 Stam – Stam C
2 6 Schep – Zijlaard J
3 3 Ligthart – Vaarten
4 9 Mouris – Zijlaard R
5 2 Terpstra – Kos
6 5 Bon van – Huybrechts
7 4 Pieters – Bakker
Koppeltijdrit
1 6 Schep – Stroetinga 22.094
2 5 Lampater – v Bon 22.492
3 3 Ligthart – Bartko 22.703
4 9 Mouris – Marvulli 22.719
5 2 Terpstra – Keisse 22.883
6 1 Stam – Havik 24.922
Finale Koppelkoers
1 6 Schep – Stroetinga 38
2 9 Mouris – Marvulli 36
3 1 Stam – Havik 16
@ 1 Lap
4 2 Terpstra – Keisse 12
5 5 Lampater – v Bon 4
6 3 Ligthart – Bartko 4
@ 2 Laps
7 4 Rasmussen – Pieters
@ 3 Laps
8 10 Kreder R – Kreder M
9 13 Markus – Hester
@ 4 Laps
10 12 Jonkman – Pronk
11 8 Kreder W – Boskamp
12 11 Traksel – Vermeulen
Rotterdam Six Day - Final Overall
1 6 Schep Peter – Stroetinga Wim
2 9 Mouris Jens – Marvulli Franco
3 1 Stam Danny – Havik Yoeri
@ 1 Lap
4 2 Terpstra Niki – Keisse Iljo
5 3 Ligthart Pim – Bartko Robert
@ 2 Laps
6 5 Lampater Leif – Bon van Leon
@ 6 Laps
7 4 Rasmussen Alex – Pieters Roy
@ 11 Laps
8 13 Markus Barry – Hester Marc
@ 14 Laps
9 10 Kreder Raymond – Kreder Michel
@ 19 Laps
10 8 Kreder Wesley – Boskamp Melvin
@ 24 Laps
11 11 Traksel Bobbie – Vermeulen Jeff
@ 29 Laps
12 12 Jonkman GeertJan – Pronk Jos
