Last day of the Grenoble Six Day 2011 – it’s not a big programme, sprint series, team time trial and the closing 180 lap chase.
By six day standards that’s not a long chase, around 38 K – at Copenhagen they have 300 lappers on a 250 track – but here, it’s heavy duty for the small teams.
Franco reckons that Kris and I should have dinner in the track centre, tonight – well, it sounded good to me…
Kris received a presentation before the chase, it’s 30 years since Kris first set up his massage table in Grenoble – with Tony Doyle being the man getting the rub.
Sercu and Freuler won that year – 1981.
The chase was good to watch; Kneisky got on the tail of the string right on the finish line to take the win just as the gun fired – perfect choreography.
But it was strange after the race, very little high spiritedness, or chat; just pick up the primes money, shake hands and off into the night.
The Belgians and Swiss were driving through the night – but we stumbled into the camper to cosy down for one last night.
Not before we’d had a nice bottle of French Jenlain beer – which we had to hide from Franco all evening.
This was the last Six Days of Grenoble – for a while, anyway – it becomes four days for 2012 as Zurich does, next month.
Like everything else in this world the sixes are changing – and not always for the best.
Gent?
Eight Germans, and no Iljo – but we’ll be there.
Grenoble Six Day 2011 – Results
Sprint series
1 Tim Mertens/Kenny De Ketele (Bel) 10 pts
2 Morgan Kneisky/Iljo Keisse (Fra/Bel) 8
3 Albert Torres/Sebastian Mora (Spa) 8
4 Jules Pijourlet/Kévin Fouahe (Fra) 7
5 Marc Hester/Jesper Morkov (Den) 6
6 Flaurent Ivars/François Lamiraud (Fra) 4
7 Pierre-Luc Perichon/Sébastien Ivars (Fra) 4
8 Alexander Aeschbach/Franco Marvulli (Swi) 3
9 Martin Hacecky/Martin Blaha (Cze) 2
10 Clément Carisey/Bastien Ruffinengo (Fra) 2
11 Danny Stam/Luke Roberts (Ned/Aus) 1
Team time trial
1 Marc Hester/Jesper Morkov (Den) 0:00:35.492
2 Alexander Aeschbach/Franco Marvulli (Swi) 0:00:35.762
3 Tim Mertens/Kenny De Ketele (Bel) 0:00:36.152
4 Albert Torres/Sebastian Mora (Spa) 0:00:36.983
5 Martin Hacecky/Martin Blaha (Cze) 0:00:37.691
6 Morgan Kneisky/Iljo Keisse (Fra/Bel) 0:00:37.977
7 Danny Stam/Luke Roberts (Ned/Aus) 0:00:38.405
Madison
1 Morgan Kneisky/Iljo Keisse (Fra/Bel) 20 pts
@ 1 lap
2 Alexander Aeschbach/Franco Marvulli (Swi) 12
3 Tim Mertens/Kenny De Ketele (Bel) 10
@ 2 laps
4 Danny Stam/Luke Roberts (Ned/Aus) 8
5 Albert Torres/Sebastian Mora (Spa) 6
6 Marc Hester/Jesper Morkov (Den) 4
@ 3 laps
7 Martin Hacecky/Martin Blaha (Cze)
8 Jules Pijourlet/Kévin Fouahe (Fra)
9 Pierre-Luc Perichon/Sébastien Ivars (Fra)
@ 4 laps
10 Flaurent Ivars/François Lamiraud (Fra)
11 Clément Carisey/Bastien Ruffinengo (Fra)
Final overall standings
1 Morgan Kneisky/Iljo Keisse (Fra/Bel) 314 pts
@ 1 lap
2 Alexander Aeschbach/Franco Marvulli (Swi) 320
3 Tim Mertens/Kenny De Ketele (Bel) 307
@ 2 laps
4 Marc Hester/Jesper Morkov (Den) 211
5 Danny Stam/Luke Roberts (Ned/Aus) 210
@ 4 laps
6 Martin Hacecky/Martin Blaha (Cze) 177
@ 5 laps
7 Albert Torres/Sebastian Mora (Spa) 225
@ 11 laps
8 Jules Pijourlet/Kévin Fouahe (Fra) 128
@ 12 laps
9 Pierre-Luc Perichon/Sébastien Ivars (Fra) 75
@ 15 laps
10 Flaurent Ivars/François Lamiraud (Fra) 58
@ 19 laps
11 Clément Carisey/Bastien Ruffinengo (Fra) 56