Six Days of Zürich

Switzerland, November 29 - December 4, 1999

Night 4 - December 2nd

Courtesy of Ernst Bretscher

The highlight of the fourth night was the 100 km-Madison-race, introduced in 1982 (with Dill-Bundi/Freuler as the winners ahead of Sercu/Clark and Pijnen/Venix).

The longest race in all of the European Sixdays began with a pace mostly over 54 kph. After 100 of 400 laps of the 250 m track, Kappes/Madsen went off alone with one lap ahead. However, then the leader position changed often with successful attacks from Gilmore/Mc Grory (after 153 laps), Martinello/Villa (after 187 laps), again Gilmore/Mc Grory (after 237), Risi/Betschart after a great solo (after 312) until finally Martinello/Villa took over the lead 62 laps to go.

With only 48 laps to go, Risi/Betschart and Gilmore/Mc Grory came up again, and these three pairs (all with a total of ten winning-laps) fought the three sprints in the last 20 laps for victory. It was a fantastic shoulder-to-shoulder-duel between Risi and Martinello with Risi winning all three sprints, but never by more than 5 or 10 cms.

Risi/Betschart took their first victory this week in this fourth fastest Zurich 100 km-Race. They have now won it five times since 1993, only interrupted by the two wins of Martinello/Villa (in 1996 and 1998).

For the first time this week the crowd (5000) was enthusiastic and supported by loud cow-bells from the region Urnerland in the Alpes, the home of Risi and Betschart.

Overall leaders, Kappes/Madsen lost one lap in this 100 km race, and there are now four teams in the lead, but shortly after midnight Risi/Betschart and Kappes/Madsen passed 200 points and got a bounus lap each.

The second main event in Thursday-Night was the so called Auto-Sprint over 20 laps for a new Fiat-Punto-Car. Here, Martinello took revenge on Risi. The Italian Beat the Swiss by 50 cms and made his honoree-tour on the 250 m-track with the new car.

Results:

Courtesy of Pascal Meisser

Standings after night 4:

1. Bruno Risi/Kurt Betschart (Swi)            203 pts
2. Andreas Kappes/Jimmy Madsen (Ger/Den)      202

1 lap behind:
3. Silvio Martinello/Marco Villa (Ita)        189
4. Matthew Gilmore/Scott McGrory (Bel/Aus)    175

2 laps behind:
5. Adriano Baffi/Andrea Collinelli (Ita)      141

3 laps behind:
6. Etienne de Wilde/Tayeb Braikia (Bel/Den)   104

11 laps behind:
7. Christian Weber/Jens Lehmann (Swi/Ger)     131

13 laps behind:
8. Eric Weisspfennig/Stefan Steinweg (Ger)     37

14 laps behind:
9. Mario Vonhof/Gerd Dörich (Ger)              85
10. Peter Jörg/Lars Teutenberg (Swi/Ger)       60

16 laps behind:
11. Rob Hayles/Bradley Wiggins (Gbr)           61
12. Frank Corvers/Laurenzo Lapage (Bel)        34
13. Juan Llaneras/Isaac Galvez (Esp)           25

17 laps behind:
14. Patrick Vetsch/Alexander Aeschbach (Swi)   39

26 laps behind:
15. Guido Fulst/Torsten Rund (Ger)             45

53 laps behind:
16. Markus Kammermann/Marcel Dunkel (Swi)      20

Individual events:

100 km-Américaine

1. Bruno Risi/Kurt Betschart (Swi)           15 pts
2. Silvio Martinello/Marco Villa (Ita)        9
3. Matthew Gilmore/Scott McGrory (Bel/Aus)    3

1 lap behind::
4. Adriano Baffi/Andrea Collinelli (Ita)
5. Andreas Kappes/Jimmy Madsen (Den)

Auto-Sprint (a real Fiat Punto for the winner)

1. Bruno Risi (Swi)
2. Silvio Martinello (Ita)
3. Scott McGrory (Aus)
4. Adriano Baffi (Ita)

Among the amateurs there were many attacks, but still no winning-lap in the fourth stage over 45 kms. For the second time the Belgian pair De Duytsche/Veermersch won a stage and took the lead from the Slovakians, Zabka/Liska. Now all foreign teams are ahead of the mostly very young and inexperienced Swiss teams.

1. Luc de Duytsche/Nicky Vermeersch (Bel)      61 pts
2. Martin Liska/Josef Zabka (Svk)              58
3. Karsten Wörner/Sven Epple (Ger)             55
4. Andre Kalfack/Marco Appler (Ger)            42
5. Patrick Fäh/Marcel Pfister (Swi)            32
6. Gregor Gut/Beat Obrist (Swi)                10
7. Patrick Banfi/Reto Lauper (Swi)              1
8. Simon Ganz/Adrian Osterwalder (Swi)

1 lap behind:
9. Pascal Manser/Stefan Mittelhammer (Swi/Ger)
10. Ralph Zimmermann/Martial Heer (Swi)
11. Jan Brunner/Philippe Weingartner (Swi)

5 laps behind:
12. Tobias Baumgartner/Michael Müller (Swi)

13 laps behind:
13. Stefan Schär/Oliver Mattmann (Sz)

14 laps behind:
14. Patrick Kraus/Alexander Mattmann (Sz)

18 laps behind:
15. Philipp Dambach/Marco Hartmann (Swi)

40 laps behind:
16. Michael Morf/Kevin Jaeggi (Swi)

The fifth stayers stage saw a fifth winner. Former dual Swiss road Champion, Felice Puttini, won the longest (30 kms) and fastest (66.32 kph) stage since Monday, and also took over the overall lead.

1. Felice Puttini (Swi)/Puttini      16 pts
2. Carsten Podlesch (Ger)/Walrave    17
3. Hanskurt Brand (Swi)/Aebi         18
4. Christoph Göhring (Swi)/Steiger   19
5. Sabino Cannone (Ita)/Durst        20
6. Lubomir Mazel (Cze)/Baur          24
7. Roland Rol (Ned)/Buchmann         32
8. Ralf Keller (Ger)/De Bakker       34

Roland Meier, Cofidis, won the third stage, also the longest (25 km) and fastest (56.390 kph), in the road racer's derny event. Coming from behind in the last lap, he passed Armin Meier, Pascal Richard (who was in the lead for a long time) and Markus Zberg (still the overall leader) in a four-man sprint.

1. Markus Zberg         7 pts
2. Alex Zülle          10
3. Pascal Richard      13
4. Roland Meier        14
5. Armin Meier         15
6. Oscar Camenzind     16
7. Beat Zberg          17
8. Rolf Järmann        21
9. Niki Aebersold      22

For the third time in three days, the leader in the sprinters event shifted. After Fiedler and Peden led in the preceding days, now Ainars Kiksis has taken over. But for the first time a Swiss, Vice-sprint-Champion Patrik Merk, won the daily classification, since he won one of the two Keirin-races, was second in Sprint and 4th in 250 m-TT. The winners: Peden in 250 m-TT (in 13.23, best time of the week), Fiedler and Treig in the sprint, and Kiksis in the second Keirin-heat.

1. Ainars Kiksis (Lat)        7 pts
2. Anthony Peden (NZ)         7
3. Jens Fiedler (Ger)         8
4. Claudio Treig (Swi)       12
5. Patrick Merk (Swi)        12
6. Jan van Eiden (Ger)       18
7. Barry Forde (Barbados)    20