News for October 26

First Edition

A Fan's Notes on 6 Day Racing.

There are three distinct types of people who go to watch six-day races
- bike fans, party-goers and the curious.  The latter group includes
those people who find themselves sitting in the middle of the track as
guests of one of the team sponsors eating gourmet food, wheeling and
dealing and getting cricks in their necks as they try and watch the
riders whizzing round the track a few feet from them.

I swear that at Bremen most people really wouldn't have an idea that
there was a bike race going on if it wasn't for the TV monitors
scattered around the various beer stands and food stalls.
Entertainment is the name of the game and of all the events they could
have pickedwas sorry to see that trips now go to Bremen from the
U.K.  It really isn't the place to go if you're in the first category
and your main interest is in the racing.  After five visits spread
over the past 13 years I've finally given it up as there is very
little left to appeal to the bike fan.

Shame, but then I've discovered Stuttgart where on most nights the
bike fans still outnumber the other categories and the size of the
venue only lends itself to two relatively small areas for
entertainment.  Not that I've got anything against entertainment. Why,
I even visited the strip club under the Stuttgart track in order to
see just how depraved it was.  It wasn't.  But this is Germany and a
lot of people don't consider themselves entertained unless they've had
their pound (or two) of flesh ;)

Atmosphere.  That's what makes a Six.  The thunder-like rumble of the
riders as they swoop around the wooden track; the buzz of the derny
motors as their riders rev their machines fit to bust; the
breathtaking patterns described by a rider threading his way through
the string to get to the front; the drawn faces of the also-rans as
the pressure tells on the last night; the sudden hush as someone falls
and the crowd takes in one huge communal gasp...

Thankfully, that last is rarer than you might expect.  Most sixes have
at least one crash but when you see how fast they go and gawp at the
sheer mayhem which is a full throttle madison you have to believe
these guys can handle their machines.  Roadies are treated with some
disdain by the six day pros because they get paid more money if they
can draw the crowds but can have uncertain track skills.  The first
couple of nights of a Six are a good place to polish up your
international vocabulary of swear words.

If you get the chance to see one, approach six day racing as you would
American Football.  They're very similar in that you can enjoy them on
different levels - as a spectacle or at a much more involved cerebral
almost scientific level.  It took me a couple of seasons before I
could see a blitz coming or recognise a flea flicker but it was worth
the effort.  The same is true of madisons and most people don't bother
- you know who the bike fans are, they're the ones who are glued to
their seats for the last chase on the last night - quiet, intent...

The scoreboard will tell you at some stage of the evening who the
leading teams are and those are ones to concentrate on.  Maybe you
have a favourite team to watch but you have to appreciate what is
going on all around the track as the string breaks up and even the
judges sometimes have trouble working out who's at the front and who's
at the back.  Laps are gained when a rider latches on to the back of
the string - wherever that may be.  So if the race has broken up into
four groups then it's the last of these which is the back.  Watch
carefully and you will see races within a race develop as lower placed
teams fight out their own battles.

Sometimes a truce is called - whether by accident or designdon't
know butwould say probably by "gentlemen's agreement" among the top
placed teams and the lower placed ones fight it out for the prize
money in one of the madisons, the big boys gaining the occasional lap
to maintain their lead.  Madison racing can be thrilling, desperately
disappointing when victory is snatched from "your" team in the dying
laps but never boring, and that is whyrarely watch the motor paced
races as they go according to the "script" more often than not. It's a
shame there are no on-track bookies asusually can tell the winner
from the start list.

There's no doubt that combines occur in this type of racing.  You will
sometimes see low placed riders burying themselves to bring back a
break and you think - "why?"  What can they gain?  The answer is in
terms of the race nothing as the riders away are of no consequence to
them but are of concern to their allies in a higher placed team.
Sometimes these combines are subtle, sometimes not. recall seeing
Danny Clark having a hard time in Bremen where he was a member of one
of two teams sharing the lead.  This was at the time when Clark-Doyle
was the dominant pairing but the promoter had split them and Doyle was
riding with a "no-hoper" roadman.

At the front of the string local boy Andy Kappes and Etienne de Wilde
having just gained a lap and now out in the lead ahead of the Clark
team were dragging the bunch along making it harder for Danny Clark
and his partner (I can't remember who it was) to get on.
Unobtrusively, Doyle slid back down the string and lengthened the
string by a couple of bike lengths - just enough to get Clark on and
then drafted him up to the front of the string.  There's quite a lot
of back scratching goes on in these events and not a little
jiggery-pokery :)

Local boys quite often win the lesser races which gives the crowd
something to shout about, anyway they all pour out to get some  more
beer when the real racing starts so who cares?   One thing's for
certain, the longer you watch sixes the more cynical you will become.
Most races are fixed before the off as it is promoters who decide who
will partner who.  Every few years a "golden team" comes along who are
just unbeatable.  A few years ago it was Danny Clarke and Tony Doyle
who won everything; Patrick Sercu (the all-time greatest Six Day rider
who was also good for the green jersey in the Tour) was in several
pairings - Merckx and Post being the obvious ones; currently it's the
Swiss pair of Bruno Risi and Kurt Betschart.

The one thing these teams have in commonwould say is that they
combine one rider who has electric speed - the ability to jump away
from the field, to sprint for points, to latch on to an attack - and
another with good staying skills to keep the momentum going for lap
gains, to tow the string up to an adversary and nullify an attack.
Classic partnerships have a sprinter (Clark, Risi, Sercu) and a
pursuiter (Doyle, Betschart, Merckx).  Although the pursuiter of the
partnership might not be recognised as such it's those teams with this
balance which will succeed.

I remember when Sixes could be fun too.  Willi Debosscher looked as
old as the hills but had the friendship of the "Kaiser" Patrick Sercu
and the hearts of the crowd in his pocket so he carried on racing as
long as he wanted.  Much to the delight of the crowd during one of the
lesser races he would suddenly do an about-turn on one of the
straights and weave his way around in the opposite direction to the
rest of the string, thus earning his pay as the "Clown Prince" of the
six day world.

Piet de Wit had a referee's whistle which he put to good use in the
devil- take-the-hindmost, lurking at the back till the very last
moment when he would come around some unfortunate individual and
whistle loudly, pointing at the rider who was to fall out as the last
across the line.  Of course, he would usually win the devil or
sometimes have to whistle himself out.  The crowd loved it.  Patrick
Sercu ruled the roost (and still does as director or advisor at
several sixes) and there was no nonsense about scoring UCI World Cup
points to spoil things.  Nowadays it can be very serious...

There's a lot more that could be said about six day racing and I'd be
happy to try and answer any questions you might have. guess it's
one of those things that you have to experience sosuggest you
people across the pond start working on the TV people with a view to
emulating those halcyon days when Madison Square Gardens gave its name
to the most intense and - daresay it - most exciting form of bike
racing you're likely to encounter.

Boardman vs. Obree

   23 Oct 95 -- Olympic champion Chris Boardman defeated world champion
Graeme Obree in a four-kilometer individual pursuit race in Paris by 1.7
seconds. It was Boardman's first major race since breaking his ankle and
wrist in the Tour de France.
   Unfortunately, Obree's self-built bike came apart at the start. A pedal
came off at the start, forcing the race to be abandoned. Obree later rode
on a borrowed bike but was no match for Boardman when the race was
restarted.
   A disappointed Obree said: "I think it would all have been different if
I'd had my own bike. I just don't know what happened at the first start.
   "The pedal just came away. I think it may have been damaged on the plane
on the way over."
   Boardman commented: "I thought I would be badly beaten but luck was on
my side." Referring to Obree's mechanical difficulties, Boardman said: "I
would have preferred to have competed on equal terms."