I have a huge capacity for watching bike racing on TV. I’ll watch hours of it even when nothing is really happening. I’m certainly not bragging. So I’m quite certain I could sit in the cramped, possibly smokey, noisy, Gent velodrome and watch an evening of six-day racing. I bet the ratio of men to women (who actually want to be there) is 10,000 to 0. Add the availability of beer and frites and I’m sorry to say, we have a pretty damn fine night out in Belgium.
I have never been to a six-day event. It’s on the big list. It will take considerable alignment of the planets for it to ever happen but I sure hope it does. If one goes on the Keepers Tour in April one could ride in two velodromes, neither of which are the Gent velodrome and by April the six-day season is long over.
But right now, while Bjarne is climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, Boonen is clubbing in Monaco and the rest of us are months away from Milano-Sanremo, many people just like us went to bed at 3am and will be back in a velodrome by 6pm tonight to do it again.
Here is a brief explanation of a modern six-day race.
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I have a soft spot for Iljo Keisse ever since seeing him crash on the final corner in that Tour of Turkey stage with the peloton bearing down on him, calmly get up, put his chain back on and still ride his ass off to take the win. I don't recall ever shouting at a television set so much as I did during that stage.
@Steven
@Gianni
So is it Ghent then?
I remember reading about 6 day races. I seem to remember then ended up banning them... to dangerous or something but that was back when they actually raced for 6 days.
@puffy
It is Gent in Dutch and Flemish, it is Ghent in English, Gand in French, I could go on and on
Looking forward to this
http://www.sixdays-zuerich.ch/index.php?id=102
Once a year and live, only the program in between the races is a little annoying.
As if you need another reason to go - you can use all that spare time on Saturday (between getting home from Het Kuipke at 3.00am on Saturday morning and rolling up again at 8.00pm - no one gets there early) to take a trip out to Koksidje the second round of the UCI cyclocross world cup.
Het Kuipke is often a sell out (certainly for good seats by September) - save for the "floor", i.e., the flat bit in the middle of the track which is standing only or unless you buy entry to the VIP tent. For EUR90 (from memory) you get all the beer you can drink - although you have to leave trackside - plus preferred seating. Plus a massive mountain of cheese and white grapes. And slabs of pate. And ice cream. Or put another way, the most random selection of foodstuffs you could possibly imagine.
Ghent is always the best racing but Munich was the best cultural experience. All the locals turn up for the Friday evening in lederhsen and dirndles (and they mean it, i.e., worn wholly without irony); the year I was there they had a band doing well intentioned but pretty poor Springsteen covers and a trampolining dwarf. (I shit you not.) Sadly Munich doesn't happen any longer.
Come up to Burnaby to our 4 day. We have beer!
http://www.burnabyvelodrome.ca/racing/burnaby-four-day/
I'm only racing the last two days this year, due to being away for the holidays.
@TBONE
Come up to Milton to check out the brand spankin new Mattamy National Cycling Centre. Not sure about the beer (you might have to apply for a permit--this is Ontario after all!)
Our local club has booked an afternoon next month. This will be my first time on the boards. I'm going to channel my inner Niki Terpstra.
It was great! You guys are missing something!
@freddy
Café Domestique should have a kiosk in the Milton velodrome. Delays in construction mean my certification for the track got pushed back to January. The consolation is that I was given free tix to the national track championships. Also this: Just ordered a track bike.
One of the most successful riders in six-day racing in the 1970s and 1980s, winning an amazing 74 races is making a comeback at age 63!
http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/12/danny-clark-making-a-comeback-at-the-austral/
Saw Danny win the 1990 Austral. A bullet on the track! Hope he makes it through the heats!