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.
Keen to see how he fared in this small and atmospheric world, he got his first start in a Six a couple of years ago.
Colby has written his experiences up into a superb behind-the-scenes look into the “Six Day Sarcophagus”, and here at VeloVeritas we’re very lucky that he offered to share it with us; it’s a great insight into the scene. Enjoy!
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The Time Capsule: An American Team in the Six Days, by Colby Pearce
This winter I was launched head first into the world of European Six Day racing. My partner Daniel Holloway and I were the first American team to be offered contracts in the pro Sixes since 2001. We have had the onus of proving ourselves to the skeptics and measuring up to the high physical and technical standards of these events.
These races are one of the last old school pillars of bicycle racing, and as such, we entered into a microscopic universe which has been trapped in time and is filled with ancient traditions, rich culture, and a strong sense of fraternity. I have probably learned more about what it means to be a professional bike racer in the four Sixes I have done than in the rest of my twenty year career.
Being offered a contract for the Six Days is not something that happens without good reason.
Riders must either be of extremely high pedigree (usually a World Champion or Olympic medalist) or have someone in the right place making recommendations.
There has been a demand for an American team to race the events. After all, the event did originate in Madison Square Garden at the beginning of the 20th century, and it is in the interest of Six Day promoters to have an international field on the start line for their events.
However the race promoters are very skeptical of anyone they are not familiar with, and even though I had a dozen World Cup medals in my quiver, it took some convincing to give us a shot.
This is where American Velodrome builder Dale Hughes came in.
Dale’s company, Velo Track, built the portable velodrome used in the Zuidlaren Six Day. Dale contacted Wim Jansen, the promoter of Zuidlaren, who on our behalf negotiated some contracts for other Sixes. This opened the door for new opportunity, so we owe a big thanks to both Dale and Wim.
For myself, after nine years learning track cycling on the World Cup circuit, competing in World Championships and other big boy events, it was time for a change.
Six Days are the final missing piece in my track racing puzzle. This was the last aspect of elite level track racing I had not experienced.
I would have taken the opportunity to race some Sixes a few years ago, but for various reasons the opportunity was not there at the time. I am fortunate it has finally come together.
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The other 50% of the team
Holloway proved himself ready for a winter of strenuous racing after passing the bar this summer in various forms.
First, we traveled to the Madison Cup in Trexlertown and won the event by a large margin; he raced the Tour of Missouri as a stagiaire for Garmin/Chipotle and helped Christian Vande Velde defend his jersey against a brutal onslaught by Columbia; we raced US Track Nationals and won every event we entered between the two of us.
So when Dale began to help me with Six Day contract negotiations in the fall, Daniel and I agreed to give it a shot. It’s maybe a bit of an odd pairing, since I am 36 and in the twilight of my career, and at 21 he is just at the beginning of the real substance of his. But I believe this season we have proven ourselves to be a solid team, in spite of the fact that he plays T-Pain endlessly on his laptop.
Traveling to our first event in Dortmund, Germany, I expected to be challenged and to discover unkempt corners of the basement of track cycling, and I was not disappointed.
When we made our first training ride in Dortmund on the newly assembled track, I was shocked at how bad the track surface was.
Some tracks are permanent fixtures (such as Copenhagen), and some are completely portable (such as Milan or Zuidlaren).
Some tracks are inbetween; with permanent corners, but removable straights, so that the facility may be converted to use for other events.
The resultant gaps between the removable sections are about one inch deep, which may not sound so big, but with 170lbs in your tires at 60km/hr, they are pretty much like an inverted speed bump in the world’s fastest criterium.
Riders told me that their seasons had been ruined from racing at Dortmund, because they left the event with open saddle sores from the track, which are really difficult to heal in a continuous season of Six day racing.
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Each One is Unique
The atmosphere of a Six Day is a must see experience for any true cycling fan.
The color changes from city to city, but the palate is the same; the racing is fast, the crowds are large, cycling savvy – and inebriated.
The entertainment between races varies. Shows we have seen include a Blues Brothers tribute band, a Robbie Williams tribute band, a bicycle trials riding show with some guys riding their bikes up staircases and jumping over crowd volunteers (always female), a stunt motorcycle rider who was doing one handed wheelies at 40mph through the banking, women’s racing, U23 racing, a laser show, and a 15 minute film about Erik Zabel and his career, complete with pictures of him riding his BMX bike in an East German neighborhood when he was about six years old.
In Dortmund, we also witnessed a marriage proposal in front of about 10,000 people. She said yes, but you have to wonder if she felt some pressure.
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How it Works
The format of the racing at Six Days seems to be a mystery to most people, as it was to me until I actually raced my first Six. Most evenings consist of about three hours of competition spread out over five or six hours, including the entertainment.
Typically our evening begins with rider introductions.
All the teams ride around the track slowly in a double paceline, starting with the last team and descending numerically. There are usually about 14 teams on a 200 meter track.
The announcer reads the palmares of each rider as the spotlight follows the team, the DJ plays the appropriate music, and then the team pulls off and goes to the back. The interesting thing about this ritual is that this process also serves as the entire warm up. Warming up in the traditional sense does not exist in the world of the Six Day pro.
Being professional in this context means waiting until the last possible minute to put on your kit and show up trackside. By last possible minute, I mean literally less than five minutes before introductions begin riders appear, put on their shoes and helmet, look at the schedule for the night, and then ride off on their bikes.
The last few minutes of massage, cabin coffee, talk and joke telling are always preferred to actually making an early appearance.
After the introductions/warm up, one rider from each team stays on the track and contests three sprints with perhaps 10 laps in between. Typically, these laps are spent in an orderly paceline without attacking or aggression.
The riders simply ride on the blue line, taking one lap pulls until its time for the sprint to begin, and then the lead rider (who is leading by a subtle combination of chance and design) drops into the pole lane and begins the sprint.
The top five riders will usually sprint for the points, which go four places deep. When the sprint is finished the leaders swing up and the group reassembles, and the process happens again.
You can’t really call this a points race, at least not in the American sense. It is really three sprints separated by some slow laps.
Of course, just when you think you have the system figured out, one of the star riders will take off without warning at four laps to go, throwing a wrench in the whole thing. After the three sprints, your partner comes in, you do a slow speed madison exchange, and then he contests the final three sprints. The team with the most points wins this event.
This is one of many smaller races which happen before, after, and between the two big madisons, or chases.
At a 200 meter track, the long chase might be 250 laps (50km) and the short chase might be 125 laps. There are sprints for points, but not until the final 30 laps of the event. So for the first 200 laps of a long chase, the objective is to take as many laps as you can on the field, and then if you are on the lead lap in the final 50 laps, you have the right to contest the sprints.
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We Know Our Place
This brings me to a finer point of European bike racing, and European culture in general.
In comparison to the average American, most European people seem to have a much better understanding of and respect for their place in the pecking order – not just in racing but in regards to life in general.
Europe is not a place in which you commonly see a category 2 rider fighting for the wheel of Tom Boonen. This is because the average cat 2 in Europe understands that even if he feels great that day, and even if he has survived a the world’s hardest road race for the first time in his life, it is not his place to head butt Tom Boonen’s leadout man. He has not earned it yet.
An American, in contrast, would argue that it is his right to do exactly this. But what is the purpose of sprinting to win points at the end of a chase if you are not on the same lap as the leaders?
The Sixes are the ultimate expression of the caste system, and a rider or team is only permitted to achieve a certain level of success when they have earned that level.
There are times when you are given chances to prove your skills and strength, and other times in which the Big Boys are playing and you have to take a back seat. The art of being a Si