There I was, sitting track side at the Copenhagen Six Day 2010 getting my copy up to date and the BlackBerry rings – it’s Viktor.
“I’ve just seen the stage from Qatar; Boasson Hagen punctured and the rest of them are nowhere to be seen!”
Eight kilometre TTT’s don’t cut much ice with Vik – best not tell him about that nice Sky notebook I got from from the team launch.
Monday means two things at the Copenhagen Six Day 2010 – the last washing of the race; and the handicap madison. Somehow I inherited all the shorts to wash last night; and if you want my advice on what to sit on – Assos, no question.
The handicap madison is a beast of a race, 300 laps, 75 kilometres, with the big guns – Alex & Michael, Franco & Bruno and Bartko & Keisse giving away seven laps to our Michaels, Smith Larsen & Berling.
The rest are all somewhere in between and the lap gains/losses contribute to the overall classification, so there can be no messing about.
But first, we had a full programme of sprints, dernys and time trials.
The music was excellent; the usual 70’s disco plus Percy Sledge – and Kiss, ‘I was Made For Loving You.’
I always associate that song with the Gent Six – it was battering out the first time I saw Iljo win there.
I’d never heard of a raw garlic suppository as a cold cure; and I hope never to hear of it again – the smell in that cabin…
Tristan Marquet was one of the riders at Bruno’s wee fling on Sunday night; when I saw him at the restaurant, after it, he wasn’t the steadiest on his feet.
But booze must agree with him; Donadio partnered him to wins in the one and two lap time trials.
And old Donadio was on the mic again – with Franco.
Franco said he found it much harder to engage the crowd here than when they’d performed similar routines at the Sixes in Holland.
The Danes are more reserved than the Dutch; give the orange men an oompah band or some dire Euro pop, a beer, and they’re on for a party – it’s not as simple as that under the grey winter skies of Denmark.
There was a steady stream of Denmark’s most famous cycling sons at the race, tonight.
A much heavier Jesper Skibby, Dan Frost, Jakob Piil, Søren Lilholt, Tayeb Braikia, Rolf Sørensen, Hans-Henrik Oersted, and Bjarne Riis.
I was changing Michael, after a race and said to him; “is Bjarne coming tonight?”
A second later, there was the man, himself – stretching over me, with a hand on my back, to give Michael a hug.
He’s slim, tall, tanned, well dressed and looked relaxed as he chatted to his two world champions.
I was talking to a Dane the other day and he reckons that the national consensus about Bjarne’s Tour win and all the subsequent controversy is that the first ‘clean’ rider was probably in 26th place, so it’s no longer that big a deal.
The 15 lap derny paced went to Iljo – he popped a huge wheelie across the line.
There was a derny madison too; ‘dernys are dangerous enough without making them change!‘ said Dirk.
Alex careered in at half distance, jumped off the Principia and squeezed at his tyres, he thought he’d punctured, but those Conti’s were rock solid and Dirk pushed him straight back in, before the commissaire arrived.
Just like Grand Tour riders, Six Day runners always have a ‘bad day’ – this was mine, my legs were killing me, all the floors are concrete and it takes its toll.
300 laps said the board, the gun fired and it was ‘game on.’
We had drama, Jesper had to change bikes; but it’s not that simple, the ‘B’ bike is set up for the dernys and time trials – rear disc and bigger gear, so it took Dirk a few laps to sort that out.
We gave Jesper the thumbs up, down he came, I hauled him to a stop, Jesper jumped on the new bike, Dirk pushed him back into the fray – job done.
Jesper rode a crowd pleasing race – he was desperate to win, in front of his home crowd, but the peloton was on schedule to break the track record and solo attacks weren’t going to work; two or three pairs are needed to share the work of gaining a lap on that big, wide, 250 metre express-way.
It was a consistently fast race and coming into the finalé it was Slippens & Schep and Pearce & Holloway on the zero lap.
Fairy tale ending? The two popular Americans bask in the glory?
Sixes aren’t like that very often, and it was Danny Stam whose arms went up as the gun fired.
I spoke to Daniel Holloway, after the race, he was disappointed, but if he keeps creeping up the curve, his day will come.
I’m writing this on Tuesday morning; it’s all to play for, tonight – the finalé.
My tip?
Mørkøv & Rasmussen – but there can be no mistakes: ‘yon Bartko and Keisse have a lean and hungry look!’
Ciao, ciao.
Copenhagen Six Day 2010 Results
Sprint 1
1 Jens-Erik Madsen / Marc Hester (Den) 5 pts
2 Robert Bartko / Iljo Keisse (Ger/Bel) 3
3 Colby Pearce / Daniel Holloway (USA) 2
4 Danny Stam / Peter Schep (Ned) 1
Sprint 2
1 Leif Lampater / Christian Grasmann (Ger) 5 pts
2 Alex Rasmussen / Michael Mørkøv (Den) 3
3 Léon van Bon / Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Ned/Den) 2
4 Alexander Aeschbach / Michael Færk (Swi/Den) 1
Sprint 3
1 Sebastian Donadio / Tristan Marguet (Arg/Swi) 5 pts
2 Danny Stam / Peter Schep (Ned) 3
3 Bruno Risi / Franco Marvulli (Swi) 2
4 Jens-Erik Madsen / Marc Hester (Den) 1
Sprint 4
1 Aloïs Kankovsky / Petr Lazar (Cze) 5 pts
2 Colby Pearce / Danie