“Dirk, you’re working on the bikes early today,” says me at the Grenoble Six Day 2010. “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 euros 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.
Sunday means that Bar Clemenceau is shut, so no afternoon beer for Ed; and my chum over at the bakers reminded me that he’s shut tomorrow – he does that every year.
The crowd could go either way tonight – it’s hard to say; but the price for a place at the track centre tables has been brought down from 63 to 48 Euros.
That’s not a bad deal, that gets you in and gives you a table place complete with all food, mineral water, wine and coffee.
Magicians and balloon sculptors will impress/annoy you as you dine, there’s the circus acts, the singers, the Folies girls, the sprinters – and, as a bonus, a Six Day race.
In the middle of the afternoon, Dan Fleeman rang to say he’d won the British hill climb championship, again – that was a nice boost for the moral.
I decided I’d better get organised and do some interviews.
I’d made an arrangement to do an email interview with Elia Viviani but he didn’t get back to me – sometimes that happens, usually because of translation hassles.
But in true Mountie tradition, ‘I got my man!’
His English isn’t the best and my Italian is restricted to a few words so Franco did the honours – my boss speaks English, Italian, German, French, Spanish and the Italian dialect spoken in Puglia.
As well as that, is tall, dark and handsome – and is the World’s best Six Day man. Some boys have all the luck.
Anyway – Viviani is cool, super cool and quick; you can see it here, his accelerations are savage and the last two nights his team has won the three lap time trial – where the Six Day team are joined by a sprinter, who does the last lap.
The other rider I interviewed today was Commonwealth Games sprint champion, Shane Perkins – if all the cyclists in the world were Aussies then being a cycling journo would be much less like pulling teeth.
Open, easy to talk to and good fun – with his ‘wild man’ days behind him, he says.
The night was a good one, the track centre was packed, the racing was good and the ambiance was excellent; there were smiles all round – from ‘speaker’ Daniel Mangeas and even Big Boss of the show, Guy Chanal.
Good fun, good racing, good morale, the best bread, the best rider to look after – can’t complain, a demain.
Grenoble Six Day 2010 Results
Points race
1 Angelo Ciccone / Elia Viviani (Ita) 9 pts
2 Mickael Jeannin / Morgan Kneisky (Fra) 9
3 Kevin Fouache / Jules Pijourlet (Fra) 8
4 Alexander Aeschbach / Franco Marvulli (Swi) 7
5 Wim Stroetinga / Jeff Vermeulen (Ned) 7
6 Tim Mertens / Kenny de Ketele (Bel) 6
7 Jens-Erik Madsen / Marc Hester (Den) 5
8 Pierre-Luc Perichon / Sebastien Ivars (Fra) 5
9 Francois Lamiraud / Florent Ivars (Fra) 4
10 Danny Stam / Leon Van Bon (Ned) 3
11 Jiri Hochmann / Milan Kadlec (Cze) 3
Madison
1 Angelo Ciccone / Elia Viviani (Ita) 20 pts
2 Alexander Aeschbach / Franco Marvulli (Swi) 12
At 1 Lap
3 Danny Stam / Leon Van Bon (Ned) 10
4 Jens-Erik Madsen / Marc Hester (Den) 8
5 Tim Mertens / Kenny de Ketele (Bel) 6
6 Mickael Jeannin / Morgan Kneisky (Fra) 4
7 Wim Stroetinga / Jeff Vermeulen (Ned)
8 Jiri Hochmann / Milan Kadlec (Cze)
At 2 Laps
9 Francois Lamiraud / Florent Ivars (Fra)
10 Pierre-Luc Perichon / Sebastien Ivars (Fra)
11 Kevin Fouache / Jules Pijourlet (Fra)
Team time trial
1 Angelo Ciccone / Elia Viviani (Ita) 35.112
2 Mickael Jeannin / Morgan Kneisky (Fra) 35.330
3 Tim Mertens / Kenny de Ketele (Bel) 35.549
4 Alexander Aeschbach / Franco Marvulli (Swi) 36.098
5 Francois Lamiraud / Florent Ivars (Fra) 36.373
6 Kevin Fouache / Jules Pijourlet (Fra) 36.648
7 Danny Stam / Leon Van Bon (Ned) 36.752
Defi Doublette
1 Tim Mertens / Kenny de Ketele (Bel) 20 pts
2 Alexander Aeschbach / Franco Marvulli (Swi) 12
3 Danny Stam / Leon Van Bon (Ned) 10
4 Jens-Erik Madsen / Marc Hester (Den) 8
5 Angelo Ciccone / Elia Viviani (Ita) 6
At 1 Lap
6 Mickael Jeannin / Morgan Kneisky (Fra) 4
7 Jiri Hochmann / Milan Kadlec (Cze)
8 Wim Stroetinga / Jeff Vermeulen (Ned)
9 Pierre-Luc Perichon / Sebastien Ivars (Fra)
10 Francois Lamiraud / Florent Ivars (Fra)
11 Kevin Fouache / Jules Pijourlet (Fra)
Elimination black numbers
1 Milan Kadlec 10 pts
2 Leon Van Bon 6
3 Elia Viviani 5
4 Marc Hester 4
5 Jeff Vermeulen 3
6 Jules Pijourlet 2
7 Kenny De Ketele
8 Sebastien Ivars
9 Franco Marvulli
10 Morgan Kneisky
11 Florent Ivars
Scratch race
1 Danny Stam / Leon Van Bon (Ned) 20 pts
2 Tim Mertens / Kenny de Ketele (Bel) 12
3 Jens-Erik Madsen / Marc Hester (Den) 10
4 Jiri Hochmann / Milan Kadlec (Cze) 8
5 Alexander Aeschbach / Franco Marvulli (Swi) 6
6 Angelo Ciccone / Elia Viviani (Ita) 4
7 Mickael Jeannin / Morgan Kneisky (Fra)
8 Pierre-Luc Perichon / Sebastien Ivars (Fra)
9 Francois Lamiraud / Florent Ivars (Fra)
10 Kevin Fouache / Jules Pijourlet (Fra)
11 Wim Stroetinga / Jeff Vermeulen (Ned)
Overall standings after Night 4
1 Angelo Ciccone / Elia Viviani (Ita) 215 pts
At 1 Lap
2 Danny Stam / Leon Van Bon (Ned) 212
3 Tim Mertens / Kenny de Ketele (Bel) 210
4 Alexander Aeschbach / Franco Marvulli (Swi) 199
At 2 Laps
5 Jens-Erik Madsen / Marc Hester (Den) 199
At 3 Laps
6 Jiri Hochmann / Milan Kadlec (Cze) 138
At 4 Laps
7 Mickael Jeannin / Morgan Kneisky (Fra) 123
At 9 Laps
8 Wim Stroetinga / Jeff Vermeulen (Ned) 94
At 12 Laps
9 Pierre-Luc Perichon / Sebastien Ivars (Fra) 34
At 14 Laps
10 Kevin Fouache / Jules Pijourlet (Fra) 49
At 17 Laps
11 Francois Lamiraud / Florent Ivars (Fra) 47
