Six Days of Zürich

Switzerland, November 29 - December 4, 1999

Night 6 - December 4th

Courtesy of Ernst Bretscher

The 47th Zürich Sixdays-Race ended at 4 o'clock Sunday morning with the Swiss Team with Bruno Risi and Kurt Betschart taking their sixth win at Zurich and their 25th victory in total as team, so they remain only 4 wins behind record holding Kilian/Vopel of Germany.

Four teams were in the same lap at the final Madison-chase over one hour plus 40 laps. After some unsuccessful attacks of Madsen/Kappes and Gilmore/Mc Grory, the decision came, when Risi/Betschart and Gilmore/McGrory worked together and in a very hard an long 45 laps-chase they gained a lap just with 18 to go. As the Swiss had more points than the Belgian/Australian-Team, the victory was perfect.

"It was one of my hardest Sixdays-final, because Betschart was not on the top, especially not on Friday evening. But he fought extremely hard in the final ", said Risi. In fact, Risi was the best rider on the Zurich Track. Betschart is still not on top, after his ski accident on March 15 with a broken leg, he only started with racing in August.

A total of 33 600 spectators came for six night sessions, 2 000 less than last year. But on the last night the crowd was more enthusiastic than ever before, because the victory of the Swiss was unexpected after their relatively weak performance in Gent. Now the Sixdays-season is interrupted till January 6 in Berlin. Former twice junior world champion Patrick Vetsch set an end to his carrier in this 6-days, because he did not get a new road contract in a road team after his contract with Swiss Post Team ran out.

In the two amateur stages, both 45 kms, in the last night again the foreign teams were in front. In the sevent stage Slovakian Liska/Zabka won the stage and took back the leader position. But in the final stage for the first time this week a movement came into the bunch. Belgian Vermeersch/De Duytsche gained with 82 laps to go the first lap in this 35th Sixjours de l'Avenir, as well as a few laps later also the 2 teams Kalfack/Appler and Obrist/Gut, but not Liska/Zabka. So the Belgians won ahead of the Germans and the Swiss. Only in three previous editions has the field been so close, with eight teams within one lap. But this 325 km-Race was also the shortest in 20 years and with 50,665 kph the slowest since 1980. Vermeersch/De Duytsche and Liska/Zabka took three stages each, the reamining two went to Wörner/Epple and Kalfack/Appler.

Also the stayers had two stages, 20 and 30 kms, in the last night. The first was won by Puttini, still with Podlesch, overall winner last year, in the lead. But in the final stage Swiss champion Hanskurt Brand won by a few meters ahead of Podlesch and reached 23 points, same as the German, and the final stage was decisive. Brand won in his fourth participation for the first time overall in the Zurich Stayers-Race (the 20th edition). Stages-wins: two for Brand, Podlesch and Puttini, one for Göhring and Cannone.

In the sprinters final night German Jens Fiedler, winner in Zurich in 1992, 93, 94 and 96, and second in the last two years, lost his leader position to Anthony Peden, New Zealand. Peden set in this decisive night in the 500 mTT with 27,33 sec. a new track record and won also the final Keirin heat. But general classification was very close, as Fiedler and Kiksis had only one point less than Peden. On fourth place Swiss Patrik Merk, with a new Swiss record on 500 m TT with 28,10. Fifth comes Swiss match sprint champion Claudio Treig. He won surprisingly the second Keirin heat and declared few minuts later the end of this career, as he will go further in his profession going to business college at Zurich. Daily winners: two times Peden and Fiedler, one time Merk.

Results:

Courtesy of Pascal Meisser

Final standings

1. Bruno Risi/Kurt Betschart (Swi)           366 pts
2. Matthew Gilmore/Scott McGrory (Bel/Aus)   313

1 lap behind
3. Andreas Kappes/Jimmy Madsen (Ger/Den)     336
4. Silvio Martinello/Marco Villa (Ita)       304

3 laps behind
5. Adriano Baffi/Andrea Collinelli (Ita)     236

13 laps behind
6. Etienne de Wilde/Tayeb Braikia (Bel/Den)  114

20 laps behind
7. Christian Weber/Jens Lehmann (Swi/Ger)    227

23 laps behind
8. Eric Weisspfennig/Stefan Steinweg (Ger)    55

25 laps behind
9. Mario Vonhof/Gerd Dörich (Ger)            124

26 laps behind
10. Frank Corvers/Laurenzo Lapage (Bel)       84

27 laps behind
11. Juan Llaneras/Isaac Galvez (Esp)          43

28 laps behind
12. Peter Jörg/Lars Teutenberg (Swi/Ger)      84

29 laps behind
13. Rob Hayles/Bradley Wiggins (Gbr)          88

31 laps behind
14. Patrick Vetsch/Alexander Aeschbach (Swi)  66

40 laps behind
15. Guido Fulst/Torsten Rund (Ger)            75

1. Luc de Duytsche/Nicky Vermeersch (Bel)       110
2. Andre Kalfack/Marco Appler (Ger)              80
3. Gregor Gut/Beat Obrist (Swi)                  36

1 lap behind
4. Martin Liska/Josef Zabka (Svk)               103
5. Karsten Wörner/Sven Epple (Ger)               76
6. Patrick Fäh/Marcel Pfister (Swi)              57
7. Simon Ganz/Adrian Osterwalder (Swi)            9
8. Patrick Banfi/Reto Lauper (Swi)                1

2 laps behind
9. Pascal Manser/Stefan Mittelhammer (Swi/Ger)    2
10. Ralph Zimmermann/Martial Heer (Swi)           1

3 laps behind
11. Jan Brunner/Philippe Weingartner (Swi)

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

19 laps behind
13. Patrick Kraus/Kevin Jaeggi (Swi)

22 laps behind
14. Stefan Schär/Oliver Mattmann (Swi)

34 laps behind
15. Pilipp Dambach/Marco Hartmann (Swi)

1. Hanskurt Brand (Swi)/René Aebi            23 pts
2. Carsten Podlesch (Ger)/Bruno Walrave      23
3. Felice Puttini (Swi)/Roberto Puttini      25
4. Sabino Cannone (Ita)/Dieter Durst         35
5. Lubomir Mazel (Tsch)/Helmut Baur          40
6. Christoph Göhring (Swi)/Peter Steiger     40
7. Ralf Keller (Ger)/Jos de Bakker           46
8. Roland Rol (Ned)/Robert Buchmann          56

The popular Derny-Classic for the Swiss road stars ended on the fourth day. On the final day, there was a real battle: First Markus Zberg lapped the others, but later also Zülle, Richard and Camenzind made a lap and Camenzind was able to win his first stage, the longest of this competition, 30 kms, and also the fastest (57.877 kph).

Rolf Järmann got a standing ovation from the crowd since he in this race ended his long and successful cycling career.

Final Standings

1. Markus Zberg          9 pts
2. Alex Zülle           14
3. Pascal Richard       16
4. Roland Meier         17
5. Armin Meier          22
6. Oscar Camenzind      24
7. Beat Zberg           24
8. Rolf Järmann         27
9. Niki Aebersold       27

1. Anthony Peden (NZ)                        10
2. Jens Fiedler (Ger)                        11
3. Ainars Kiksis (Lat)                       11
4. Patrick Merk (Swi)                        18
5. Claudio Treig (Swi)                       23
6. Jan van Eiden (Ger)                       27
7. Barry Forde (Barbados)                    33