37th Grenoble Six Day - 6D

Grenoble, France, October 25-30, 2007

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Day 4 - October 28

Aeschback & Defauw take over

By Timothy Bradford in Grenoble

The fourth night of racing at the Palais des Sports in Grenoble had a tough act to follow. On Saturday, a nearly capacity and animated audience witnessed two track records broken by the Pro sprinters, a very animated Madison, and a change in the overall Pro Six-Day leaders from the Swiss/Belgian team of Aeschback/Defauw to the Danish team of Morkov/Rasmussen. On Sunday, although the audience was smaller and more reserved and no track records fell, the racers continued to demonstrate a high level of competitiveness, and the overall lead in the Pro Six-Day changed once again.

After a lively set of national junior races complete with fanatic friends and family in the stands using air horns and cow bells to cheer on their favorites, the professional racing, as per the usual format here, started with a Keirin for the sprinters, won by Mickaël Bourgain. Overall Keirin leader Arnaud Tournant finished a close second followed by the rider in second overall, Didier Henriette.

The Six-Day events got under way soon after with a 36 lap race featuring sprints every 6 laps. Morkov/Rasmussen, the leaders going into the evening by a mere three points over Aeschbach/Defauw, won the event and earned nine points, which gave them 200 points overall. Every hundred points earned equals a lap, so this effectively put Morkov/Rasmussen up a lap. However, since Aeschbach/Defauw and Neuville/Villa remained within striking distance of 200 points, this "lap up" was anything but secure.

After the evening's first round of match sprints for the sprinters, the next Six-Day event was a thirty-five minute Madison, and as on Saturday night, it proved to be one of the highlights. The Czech team of Alois Kankovsky and Pert Lazar, who started Sunday night in fourth place overall, went on the attack early in the race, and despite a crash by Lazar on the backstretch at one point, they ended up winning with the French/Italian team of Neuville/Villa coming in second, Morkov/Rasmussen third, and Aeschbach/Defauw fourth.

The sprinters took the track next to compete in an elimination-style event counting toward the Golden Sprint overall competition. Kevin Sireau won, followed by François Pervis and Grégory Baugé, but Mickaël Bourgain remained in the overall lead in this competition.

Next up, both sprinters and Six-Day racers took to the track to compete in a three man time-trial that paired the Six-Day teams with one sprinter for three laps with a flying start. Each team member of the Six-Day squads took a turn before peeling off to leave the sprinter at the end for the final lap. The team of Kankovsky/Lazar continued their winning ways while paired up with sprinter Grégory Baugé, and together, this trio of massive horsepower turned in the best time at 35.462 to the enthusiastic cheers of the crowd.

After several more rounds of match sprinting, the Six-Day racers were at it again in a Défi Doublette, an event that is unique to Grenoble. Basically, it is a Madison that rewards extra points for lapping the main peloton twice without remaining part of the peloton for more than three laps between the attacks. This race played well to the teams who were lower down in the competition as the fifth place overall team of Schets/Deneef from Belgium won followed by the sixth place overall team of Ciccone/Masotti from Italy and the eight place overall team of Grasmann/Dörich from Germany.

The Pro Match Sprint competition for the evening came down to Kevin Sireau against Grégory Baugé, and although Sireau won this evening, Baugé remained firmly in first place in this competition.

The sprinters were done, but no so for the Six-Day racers, and after two single-rider elimination events and a single rider scratch event, Aeschbach/Dafauw had earned enough points to retake the lead from Morkov/Rasmussen. The final race of the evening was a mixed elimination/Madison event, called an "Elimination Dauphinoise." The race starts as a team elimination until it is down to six teams, at which point it switches to a Madison format. The result can be a surprise for some teams, such as the third place overall team of Neuville/Villa, who was the second team to be eliminated and was effectively left out of the sprint for points at the end.

The German team of Grasmann/Dörich won, with the Czech/Slovak team of Zabka/Kadlec second and Aeschbach/Defauw third. Overall, Aeschbach/Defauw remained in the lead with 244 points. Morkov/Rasmussen remained on the same lap and finished only five points behind while Neuville/Villa retained third and Kankovsky/Lazar remained in fourth overall.

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by Timothy Bradford

Arnaud Tournant (left) and Mickaël d’Almeida prepare to face each other in the first round of match sprints.
Tournant leads d’Almeida through the first lap.
Jérôme Neuville prepares to sling team-mate Marco Villa into the action during the Madison as Pierre-Luc Perichon looks on.
Pert Lazar hard at work during the Madison.
Neuville completes an exchange with Villa as Morgan Lamoisson (in red) focuses ahead.
Marco Villa leads Pert Lazar through the front stretch.
Preparing to head back out.

Results

1  Alexander Aeschbach (Swi) / Dimitri Defauw (Bel)      244 pts
2  Michael Morkov (Den) / Alex Rasmussen (Den)           239
3  Jérôme Neuville (Fra) / Marco Villa (Ita)             223
 
2 laps down

4  Alois Kankovsky (Cze) / Pert Lazar (Cze)              159 pts
 
3 laps down

5  Steve Schets (Bel) / Steven Deneef (Bel)              180 pts
6  Angelo Ciccone (Ita) / Fabio Masotti (Ita)            151
 
4 laps down

7  Josef Zabka (Cze) / Milan Kadlec (Svk)                126 pts
 
6 laps down

8  Christian Grasmann (Ger) / Gerd Dörich (Ger)           90 pts
 
10 laps down

9  Jonathan Mouchel (Fra) / Sébastian Ivers (Fra)         48 pts
 
15 laps down

10  Pierre-Luc Perichon (Fra) / Morgan Lamoisson (Fra)    25 pts
DNF Vivien Brisse (Fra) / François Lamiraud (Fra)