Copenhagen Six Day 2012 – Day Three

Afternoon Session

Danny Clark; in a world where the word ‘legend’ is used too often, it’s wholly appropriate in the case of the Australian. He holds the record for the number of six day starts at 236 and he’s second in the all time winner ranks with 74 — unsurprisingly he’s ‘double Recordman’ here at the Copenhagen Six Day with eight wins off 21 starts.

He’s here driving the Derny (and singing!) but clocks up an hour plus on the track every day — he looks better now than he did 20 years ago.

And on the subject of Dernys, Shane had his first taste of the little monsters, today.

We waited with baited breath for his words of wisdom on the experience; ‘waste of f##king time that was!’

The Devil featured some classic 80’s Europop; Spagna’s ‘Call Me’ — I was back in my Renault 5 Turbo all over again for a minute.

Marcel Barth tried to ‘do a Willy De Bosscher’ in the Devil; the Belgian 70’s six day star used to ride round with a red card and a whistle, often pointing out his victims without actually looking at them — very entertaining.

But the difference was that Willy used to be able win them.

The chase was a potato job — and that was the afternoon.

Evening Session

Press the ‘repeat’ button; it’s time for the evening session.

The UiV Cup is the U23 Six Day, here at Copenhagen they embrace it but at many of the Six Day venues treat it as an inconvenience.

That’s a puzzle to me — Keisse, De Ketele, Mørkøv and Rasmussen all came up through the UiV system.

Our charge from Zürich, Dominik Stucki is riding too, and going well.

Shane gave us more of his philosophical insights into cycling at the highest level; ‘you know that if you shut your eyes in a race, it saves one watt?’

Jens Erik Madsen came to visit us tonight; he was a member of the Danish squad which won Olympic silver and Worlds gold in the team pursuit and rode very strongly in the Sixes last year with Marc Hester.

They gained several podiums in the Six Days, including here in Copenhagen.

But Jens Erik decided he’d had enough of the Six Day hamster wheel and isn’t racing, this winter.

He’ll back on the road for summer 2012, though.

The Devil was a bit quick tonight, maybe quicker than the chases.

On the subject of which, Barth and Blaha managed to haul each other off during a change.

The flying 500 metres; our boy from the land of the long white cloud gears up — 50 x 13 to be precise, it pays off with fastest time and we have flowers for the cabin.

The gearing up wasn’t just about winning; it was about keeping his strength up for the London World Cup where 100” plus gears are the norm in the team pursuit — which Shane rides, as well as the omnium.

Shane had a visitor too, countryman and former Worlds tandem and keirin medallist, Anthony Peden is at Copenhagen with sprinting legend Ron Baensch: so he popped by.

These days Anthony is Moto GP top dog, Casey Stoner’s personal trainer but still retains his interest in cycling.

As Martyn says, the flying lap is what it’s all about; Alex and Michael hug the fence, AC/DC blasts — ‘Thunder struck,’ the speaker roars above the music, the crowd stand and clap, shout and stamp for the home boys.

Bang!

Fastest time; but Grasmann and Norman top it, dipping under 13 seconds — great entertainment, unique in the world of sport.

And then it was time to pay tribute to Danny Clark — unfortunately I don’t get any ‘proper’ pictures (so forgive the BlackBerry images) because I was round for Derny pushing off duties immediately after Danny had his few minutes — and they did do him proud.

The big Saturday night chase was OK, but with eight teams on the zero lap with 11 minutes to it was no ‘death race,’ but Shane is definitely finding his madison legs.

Another afternoon session, tomorrow — still, just four sleeps to go to.

Copenhagen Six Day 2012 - Results from Day Three