Grenoble Six Days 2011… One day, I’d like to come to the Grenoble Six Days and sit at one of the big tables with friends and family, watch the cabaret, and the racing, chat, eat and drink too much.
It’s good value at 63 euros per head; that gets you in, allows you to attack the beautiful buffet and provides: you a bottle of wine, mineral water and a coffee as you watch the racing and the cabaret – one day… Oh dear!
It’s 11:00 pm and the ‘no limits’ is in full effect (that’s a standstill contest) – and yes, it’s as dire as it sounds.
If Vik finds out about this one, I’m in trouble.
He doesn’t like Grenoble, he’s seen my pics of the balloon lady and magician – if it was down to Vik we’d have a rider on the track for 24 hours, wouldn’t let the b**tard riders out of the stadium and would have then sleeping in the cabins.
Grenoble is all a bit, well, ‘French,’ but when you’re here, it’s actually pretty cool.
Gent is the ‘man’s six’ but that format wouldn’t work here; just like 34 minute standstills would have beer bottles raining onto the track at Gent.
Former track star Arnaud Tournant is up on the boards, pitted against Bauge; the record for this carry on is 45 minutes but thankfully Arnaud cracks around the half hour and Bauge get bored soon thereafter.
There are two chases, a 35 minute and a 20 minute; neither is scintillating but the riders whizzing by is just part of the show – as long as they’re not going so slow that Thevenet and Biondi start asking questions.
I was chatting to some of the French guys today, they’re not even on Continental squads – just amateurs.
Jesper and Marc continue to lead, but when it gets serious, I have the feeling that Iljo and Morgan will be the men.
Franco’s motivation isn’t the best this year; on his day, he’s the best – but I haven’t seen him on ‘his’ day for a few races now.
Results
Sprint series
1 Jules Pijourlet/Kévin Fouahe (Fra) 12 pts
2 Tim Mertens/Kenny De Ketele (Bel) 10
3 Marc Hester/Jesper Morkov (Den) 8
4 Morgan Kneisky/Iljo Keisse (Fra/Bel) 8
5 Martin Hacecky/Martin Blaha (Cze) 7
6 Alexander Aeschbach/Franco Marvulli (Swi) 5
7 Albert Torres/Sebastian Mora (Spa) 5
8 Pierre-Luc Perichon/Sébastien Ivars (Fra) 5
9 Clément Carisey/Bastien Ruffinengo (Fra) 4
10 Flaurent Ivars/François Lamiraud (Fra) 2
11 Danny Stam/Luke Roberts (Ned/Aus)
Madison
1 Danny Stam/Luke Roberts (Ned/Aus) 20 pts
@ 1 lap
2 Alexander Aeschbach/Franco Marvulli (Swi) 12
3 Morgan Kneisky/Iljo Keisse (Fra/Bel) 10
4 Martin Hacecky/Martin Blaha (Cze) 8
5 Tim Mertens/Kenny De Ketele (Bel) 6
6 Marc Hester/Jesper Morkov (Den)
@ 2 laps
7 Jules Pijourlet/Kévin Fouahe (Fra)
8 Albert Torres/Sebastian Mora (Spa)
9 Pierre-Luc Perichon/Sébastien Ivars (Fra)
10 Flaurent Ivars/François Lamiraud (Fra)
11 Clément Carisey/Bastien Ruffinengo (Fra)
Elimination (black)
1 Franco Marvulli (Swi) 10 pts
2 Iljo Keisse (Bel) 6
3 Kenny De Ketele (Bel) 5
4 Luke Roberts (Aus) 4
5 Jesper Morkov (Den) 3
6 Kévin Fouahe (Fra) 2
7 Sebastian Mora (Spa)
8 Sébastien Ivars (Fra)
9 François Lamiraud (Fra)
10 Martin Blaha (Cze)
11 Bastien Ruffinengo (Fra)
Scratch race
1 François Lamiraud (Fra) 10 pts
2 Sebastian Mora (Spa) 6
3 Kévin Fouahe (Fra) 5
4 Sébastien Ivars (Fra) 4
5 Bastien Ruffinengo (Fra) 3
6 Franco Marvulli (Swi) 2
7 Jesper Morkov (Den)
8 Martin Blaha (Cze)
9 Kenny De Ketele (Bel)
10 Iljo Keisse (Bel)
11 Luke Roberts (Aus)
Madison
1 Albert Torres/Sebastian Mora (Spa) 20 pts
2 Jules Pijourlet/Kévin Fouahe (Fra) 12
3 Pierre-Luc Perichon/Sébastien Ivars (Fra) 10
4 Flaurent Ivars/François Lamiraud (Fra) 8
@ 1 lap
5 Marc Hester/Jesper Morkov (Den) 6
6 Tim Mertens/Kenny De Ketele (Bel) 4
7 Alexander Aeschbach/Franco Marvulli (Swi)
8 Morgan Kneisky/Iljo Keisse (Fra/Bel)
9 Danny Stam/Luke Roberts (Ned/Aus)
10 Clément Carisey/Bastien Ruffinengo (Fra)
11 Martin Hacecky/Martin Blaha (Cze)
Elimination (red)
1 Albert Torres 10 pts
2 Pierre-Luc Perichon 6
3 Jules Pijourlet 5
4 Alexander Aeschbach 4
5 Marc Hester 3
6 Flaurent Ivars 2
7 Tim Mertens
8 Morgan Kneisky
9 Clément Carisey
10 Martin Hacecky
11 Danny Stam
Team elimination
1 Morgan Kneisky/Iljo Keisse (Fra/Bel) 20 pts
2 Martin Hacecky/Martin Blaha (Cze) 12
3 Tim Mertens/Kenny De Ketele (Bel) 10
4 Danny Stam/Luke Roberts (Ned/Aus) 8
5 Alexander Aeschbach/Franco Marvulli (Swi) 6
6 Marc Hester/Jesper Morkov (Den) 4
7 Pierre-Luc Perichon/Sébastien Ivars (Fra)
8 Flaurent Ivars/François Lamiraud (Fra)
9 Clément Carisey/Bastien Ruffinengo (Fra)
10 Albert Torres/Sebastian Mora (Spa)
11 Jules Pijourlet/Kévin Fouahe (Fra)
Standings after night 3
1 Marc Hester/Jesper Morkov (Den) 128 pts
2 Danny Stam/Luke Roberts (Ned/Aus) 110
@ 1 lap
3 Morgan Kneisky/Iljo Keisse (Fra/Bel) 165
4 Alexander Aeschbach/Franco Marvulli (Swi) 155
5 Tim Mertens/Kenny De Ketele (Bel) 147
@ 2 laps
6 Martin Hacecky/Martin Blaha (Cze) 96
@ 3 laps
7 Albert Torres/Sebastian Mora (Spa) 110
@ 4 laps
8 Jules Pijourlet/Kévin Fouahe (Fra) 86
9 Pierre-Luc Perichon/Sébastien Ivars (Fra) 53
@ 6 laps
10 Flaurent Ivars/François Lamiraud (Fra) 37
@ 10 laps
11 Clément Carisey/Bastien Ruffinengo (Fra) 31