Those Venga Boys, they ‘Like to Party,’ the ‘speaker’ is getting excited; ‘ho, ho, ho !’ the bone-hard Contis rumble on the boards, the 1/8” pitch chains rattle – it’s good to be back, there’s nothing like a Six Day. A couple of weeks ago I was spectating at the Gent Six Day, right now I’m on the other side of the boards working in the track centre at the Rotterdam Six Day.
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Night One
Wednesday morning, the first night in Rotterdam passed without incident; the cabins are tidied, the drinks bottles are washed, the tricots folded and placed with the clean shorts, socks and track mitts for our three riders – and my feet hurt from these concrete floors.
Our three charges are:
Wojciech Pszczolarski [Poland] 31 years-old and a former European u23 and Elite Champion in the Points Race and Elite European Champion in the Madison as well as former Polish Champion in both disciplines.
Bartosz Rudyk [Poland] 24 years-old who rides with Wojciech and is a former European Champion in the u23 Scratch Race and a multiple medallist in Polish Championships – in the Omnium, Team Sprint, Madison and Individual Pursuit.
Not a bad road rider either.
Denis Rugovac [Czech] 29 years-old and a multiple Czech track championship medallist – he rides with aggressive Italian Matteo Donega who has his own helper.
All three are experienced Six Day riders who we’ve worked with before – ‘laid back’ and easy to work with, no ‘Prima Donnas’ in our cabin.
Night One Rotterdam?
In a nutshell?
‘The Yoeri Havik Show,’ – with partner and fellow ‘home boy,’ Niki Terpstra he won both Madisons then on his own, the Elimination and the ‘Supersprint’ – a ‘Points Elimination.’
But like he told us; ‘I’m World Champion and expected to put on a show for my home public.’
Before we get into this race, let’s talk a little history about the Rotterdam Six Day;
- First held: In 1936 but there have been various hiatus – not least World War Two – making this edition 39.
- ‘Recordman’ is home boy Rene Pijnen – who rode 233 six days during his career, second only to Danny Clark (235) as far as number of starts go; Pijnen won 72 of those races so is third best on wins behind Patrick Sercu (88) and Danny Clark (74). Ten of Pijnen’s wins came here in Rotterdam, which unsurprisingly makes him ‘recordman’ – he won four times with countryman the late Leo Duyndam, three times with Aussie, Clark, twice with Belgian Legend, the late, great Patrick Sercu and once with big Suisse, Urs Freuler.
- The last edition of the race – pre-Covid – was held in 2020 with local hero Yoeri Havik partnering now retired compatriot Wim Stroetinga to victory.
- Apart from Danny Clark the only other ‘Anglo’ winner is Tony Doyle who partnered Clark in 1988
- The track is a temporary structure, on steel frames with plywood riding surface, 200 metres, 13.5 degrees in the straights and 49.5 on the bankings.
- Track record is 9.852 seconds set by current sprint Dutch World sprint king, Harrie Lavreysen in 2020 at the last edition of the race.
And that’s enough words for today except – coolest man on the boards?
Italia and INEOS fast man Elia Viviani is paired with 23 years-old Dutchman, Vincent Hoppezak, the team is sponsored by Jordex a Dutch shipping company, their company colours are orange and black – check out Elia’s helmet, glasses, mitts, socks and shoes.
Class.
* * *
Night Two
Tonight was a rolling presentation, most of the riders prefer that to individual intros in the track centre – no boring interviews and it loosens tight legs.
‘Back in the day,’ when I first worked at the Six Days most of the riders would go up on the boards in the afternoon to stretch their legs – not these days.
They like their sprinting here in Rotterdam, not least because the Dutch are the dominant force in world sprinting, that’s World Sprint and Keirin Champion, Harrie Lavreysen on the right, next to him is World Kilometre Champion, Jeffrey Hoogland.
The only Worlds Sprint discipline they missed out on was the Team Sprint where the Aussies surprised everyone.
Our man, Thomas Babek is ‘pretty in pink’ in the picture, a former European Kilometre Champion and a multiple Czech Champion in all the sprint disciplines.
And you only think you’ve seen a long handlebar extension until you see the 18cm job on Thomas’s Argon.
He was a ‘LOOK man’ but says the Argon is much stiffer than the French marque; our Six Day man Wojciech has ‘gone Argon’ too, he was a Cervélo man – but as an endurance rider reckons there’s little to chose between the frames.
The first Madison went to the Swiss/Spanish duo of Claudio Imhof and Seb Mora; the Suisse won the recent UCI Track Champions League whilst Mora is an accomplished Six Day man, having won here with Alberto Torres in 2016.
As well as Imhof/Mora in the running for a podium there’s the young Belgian duo of Gent Six Day winner, Lindsay De Vylder and Jules Hester.
Both ride for Sport Vlaanderen which becomes Team Flanders-Baloise for 2023 and are multiple national medallist and champions on the track.
‘Men in Black,’ Viviani/Hoppezak have to be considered too, Viviani’s abilities speak for themselves whilst the young Dutchman is on the ‘up.’
The final podium contenders are Big Roger Kluge and Dutch fast man, Cees Bol.
Despite Kluge’s power and palmarès Lotto haven’t retained him and he rides in 2023 with German continental team Rad-Net along with most of the German national track squad.
Kluge has been twice World Madison Champion but is a humble and approachable man, the exact opposite of some young riders here who don’t have a tenth of his palmarès.
Bol too, at time of writing is off the World Tour, he was to join Cav as part of the Manxman’s ‘train’ at B&B Hotels but that has evaporated.
Bol was a product of the SEG Cycling Academy and when he turned full pro in 2019 with Sunweb and promptly won Nokere Koerse it looked like he was going to be one of the ‘next big things.’
But despite stage wins in Paris-Nice in 2021 and more recently the Tour of Britain he’s not had the impact most expected.
The team elimination went to Yoeri and Niki, the latter on a white marble-effect frame with bling ‘Niki’ graphics.
And the flying lap to the Danish duo of Six Day stalwart Marc Hester and youngster, Matias Malmberg.
The main, wee bit lame, Madison of the night went to Viviani & Hoppezak; and as Wojciech says;
“Once the big chase is over, that’s the real racing finished. The rest are like the last stage of the Tour de France, for show.”
And then it was Derny time, Wojciech here behind Derny expert pilot Peter Baurlein.
I remember at my first Six Day, I was so chuffed and excited the first time I pushed off a rider in a Derny race, now it’s a chore, but just part of the deal.
Yoeri won, no surprises there – another Elimination, another Derny…
Time to tidy the track cabins, face all those stairs and sort the washing.
* * *
Night Three
The under 23 riders start the racing each night, I really must get down earlier and watch.
It was another rolling presentation which gives me a good chance to get ‘back up’ pics of all the teams.
Then it was sprinter time.
Harrie Layreysen is far from the ‘arrogant man-mountain’ sprinter stereo type – he’s a big man but not huge and is in affable mood here at his home Six Day, winning just about everything.
Our Czech sprinter, Tomas is easy-going too but hasn’t been a Worlds Keirin medallist because he’s a wimp.
A face I spotted in the track centre was that of Derny pacer legend and a man who should really have been Oscar nominated for his last lap performances behind the ‘bars of his famous gold Derny; Joop Zijlaard.
He owns two restaurants in Rotterdam, one a steakhouse, the other specialises in mussels.
The opening Madison went to team six, 22 year-old Dutchman Philip Heijnen, whose European u23 Madison champion and rides here with 20 years-old German, Tim Torn Teutenberg who’s with the Leopard team and a fair roadman.
The chase music selection is proper Six Day stuff; Duck Soup and ‘Barbara Streisand,’ Lou Bega and ‘Mambo No. Five,’ The Mavericks and ‘Dance the Night Away,’ the Blues Brothers and ‘Everybody Needs Somebody to Love’ and, of course, them Venga Boys.
Our guys are really here to fill up the field, very few folks in Rotterdam are that interested in Czech or Polish riders but our boy Denis and his gung-ho partner, Italy’s Italy’s Matteo Donega are by no means making fools of themselves.
Viviani and Hoppezak took the flying lap with the Italian having taken his colour coordination even further, now with orange stripes on his Pinarello.
Niki and Yoeri were, ‘up for it’ and visibly disappointed not to get the win – but that’s show biz.
Check out Yoeri’s Dutch Federation, carbon aero shoes.
Big Roger’s old fashioned rollers warm up worked well and he won the Derny.
Whilst Lindsay De Vylder prefers the hi-tech Wahoo set up.
It worked for the young Belgian and partner Jules Hesters who ended the night in yellow.
However, it’s hard to see past Messrs. Havik and Terpstra in the final reckoning.
Yoeri was explaining to us that Niki was less than pleased with his own form in the Three Days of Copenhagen which was run off a few weeks back and since then he’s been out battering himself behind the Derny and doing regular Madison track training sessions with Yoeri.
As Yoeri told us;
“I have to be impressed by Niki’s attitude, he could just say; “it’s my last race, so what ?” but it’s not like that at all, he wants to go out at the top.”
And on the subject of ‘going out’, that’s us half-way home…
Now go read Part Two of Ed’s story from the Rotterdam Six Day 2022.
