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Introduction to Track Racing - What's a Wheelrace? - Introduction to Six Day racing - UCI codes
37th Grenoble Six Day - 6D
Grenoble, France, October 25-30, 2007
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Day 3 - October 27
Action a plenty
By Timothy Bradford
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The professional racing started after many other activities in and around the track with a Keirin for the seven professional sprinters competing in a series of races separate from the Six-Day events. Mickaël Bourgain, Grégory Baugé and Mickaël d'Almeida started the evening in the first three spots in this competition, and the Keirin was won by Arnaud Tournant. Three of the sprinters in this year's event, Tournant, Baugé, and Bourgain, are world champions, and all seven sprinters in the field hail from France. Despite the lack of other nationalities in this year's competition, which will award 35,000 Euros in prizes over the course of six nights, there were no "gifts" in the course of the evening, which included match sprints and timed events.
In fact, these fierce competitions, interspersed between the Six-Day races and the infield performances, proved to be some of the audience's favorites, probably due to the speed and the relative ease, compared to your average Six-Day Madison-style competition, of figuring out who won. Highlights Saturday night included Mickaël Bourgain setting a new track record of 10.768 for one lap with a flying start that began at a speed of over 70 km/h, and Arnaud Tournant, who is plenty fast when he needs to be, setting a new track record of 35 minutes and 29 seconds for balancing in one place. This event, a Grenoble original, is called the "No Limit" since the goal is to balance as long as possible, and while it may seem mundane or gimmicky at first, as riders, one by one, begin to shake all over and "ride out," an action that says they have had enough, or more simply, fall over on the track, the effort required becomes apparent. At the end of Saturday night's events, the top two overall in the sprinters' competition were still Bourgain and Baugé, but Mickaël d'Almeida had lost the third spot to François Pervis.
The Six-Day competition this year features eleven teams of two riders, most notably four-time champion of the Grenoble Six Alexander Aeschbach, who hails from Switzerland and is paired this year with Belgian rider Dimitri Defauw. The Danish team of Michael Morkov and Alex Rasmussen, who were second in 2006, is also a standout. The night began with the teams of Aeschbach/Defauw, Morkov/Rasmussen and Jérôme Neuville/Marco Villa in the first three spots. Although there were a couple events relatively early in the evening, the Six-Day action did not really heat up until the first Madison race, which started at 9:35 p.m. and lasted thirty-five minutes. Although the Madison is a difficult event to follow, it is worth the effort, and even a relative novice to track racing can appreciate the drama of watching one or two riders give everything they have to try and gain a lap on the field. Despite the enormous efforts of the French/Italian team of Neuville/Villa near the end, the contest was taken by Aeschbach/Defauw followed by Morkov/Rasmussen. Neuville/Villa did take the combined GC/points jersey for their efforts.
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The evening also featured two elimination races, where the last rider over the line on a given lap is out, timed events, and a scratch race won by the Czech team of Alois Kankovsky and Petr Lazar with Morkov/Rasmussen second and the Czech/Slovak team of Josef Zabka and Milan Kadlec in third. By the end of the evening, Morkov/ Rasmussen had moved into the lead with 191 points, Aeschbach/Defauw dropped to second but remained on the same lap as the leaders and in close second with 188 points, and Neuville/Villa maintained third by staying on the same lap as the leaders and having 172 points.
Despite all the hard work, fairly few people were left to congratulate the leaders at the end. After all, it is hard work eating and drinking all night, and the last race, a Dauphinoise Elimination won by the Italian team of Angelo Ciccone and Fabio Masotti, did not go off until 1:55 a.m. But the devoted fans and those who had lost all sense of time remained, as did the hard-working staff of servers, who faced an enormous clean-up job. While Six-Day races may not last six days non-stop as they once used to, the 6 Jours Cyclistes de Grenoble certainly keeps plenty of people occupied and entertained for most of its 144 hours from start to finish.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Timothy Bradford
- Thirty-six thousand oysters were consumed at the event in 2006.
- It wouldn’t be fine dining in France without this.
- The aerial acrobat troupe Duo Image showing why they eat after performing.
- Duo Image at a slower moment.
- Alex Rasmussen leads Steven Deneef in the Madison.
- Michael Morkov watches Czech rider Pert Lazar pass on the high side during the Madison.
- Italian Marco Villa (left) and Frenchman Jérôme Neuville (right) receive the combined GC/points jersey and bouquets after the Madison.
- Arnaud Tournant leads Grégory Baugé over the line while setting up for the final lap.
- Arnaud Tournant setting a new record in the No Limit balancing competition.
Results
1 Michael Morkov (Den) / Alex Rasmussen (Den) 191 pts 2 Alexan Aeschbach (Swi) / Dimitri Defauw (Bel) 188 3 Jerome Neuville (Fra) / Marco Villa (Ita) 172 1 lap down 4 Alois Kankovsky (Cze) / Pert Lazar (Cze) 122 2 lap down 5 Steve Schets (Bel) / Steven Deneef (Bel) 128 6 Angelo Ciccone (Ita) / Fabio Masotti (Ita) 112 3 lap down 7 Josef Zabka (Cze) / Milan Kadlec (Cze) 99 5 lap down 8 Christi Grasmann (Ger) / Gerd Dorich (Ger) 54 7 lap down 9 Jonathan Mouchel (Fra) / Sebastien Ivars (Fra) 30 10 lap down 10 Pierre/ Perichon (Fra) / Morgan Lamoisson (Fra) 18 11 lap down 11 Vivien Brisse (Fra) / Francoi Lamiraud (Fra) 26
