January 29/06 4:15 am - Forest City Velodrome: Six Day Reports

Posted by Editoress on 01/29/06
 

Forest City Velodrome - Six Day
Courtesy Rob Good

Day 1

If you like bicycle racing, you missed one of the best nights of aggressive racing we have had in Ontario in a long time.

It was sprinter night or so it seemed in the first 2 Madisons. The Delhi Team with super fast Keith Thoranson & Mike Renneboog had the field covered by winning the first 5 points sprints of the evening. By the end of the second Madison they had built up a lead on points that could only be defeated by another team taking a lap on the entire field. I will get back to that later.

We break each night into 3 segments of 30 minutes, During the 30 minute segments the organizers usually have the teams compete for sprint points, however to spice the racing up the teams were asked to do a flying 2 laps just like the Velo-Kids, but with a twist, each team during the 2 lap dash had to do a handsling to through their partner into the final lap. This is were the Delhi team first showed that the sprints are going to be hard to win. Their time of 18.37 was a tenth faster than the Burlington team of Garnet Abbey & Vince DeJong. All of the other teams were very close behind. the sprints continued and Team Delhi won the final sprint of the first segment to take a large lead into the second 30 minute session.

The second segment saw the teams still feeling each other out with a couple of attacks but nothing was able to get away. At the mid point of this session the organizers put in a Miss & Out which is always a crowd pleasure. The final sprint came down to the Brantford Team (Eric Robertson - Piers Davidge) and Team Waterloo (Neil Dignam - rg) With 2 laps to go Roberston blew the race open with a solid attack which Dignam could not respond to and the win went to the Brantford bunch. How ever the top points went to Team Delhi due to their riders stayed in the race the longest and combined points of both riders meant that they won again.

In the third Madison of the night, the teams knew that if they were to win they had to put Team Delhi down a lap. The first Jam was started by an aggressive move by Team London (Dave St James, Dave went through 3 different partners on the night because of the illness of his partner Dave Byer, We are hoping he will return to action on Saturday night). The first attack was short lived, however 3 minutes into the session the Burlington Team of Abbey & DeJong went over the top in what turned out to be close to 15 minutes of eye popping speed. They gained 1/2 a lap very quickly then seemed to falter, then they attacked again, all the while the other 4 teams were trying to claw them back (didn't work). After 10 minutes Abbey finally made his way to the back of the bunch, that's when a counter attack went off the front of the bunch and the Jam continued for another couple of minutes. It all came back together and the Burlington Team had their hard earned lap on the field, almost guaranteeing a win on the night. With all the legs of the riders shattered, the racing continued with the final sprints of the night, won by Davidge from Team Brantford & the Delhi team.

In the end, Team Burlington with the lap gained in the final Madison, sealed the victory on night # 1 of the Forest City 6-Day Bicycle Race.

Day 2

Another thrilling display of Madison racing entertained the crowd for the second night of the 6 day race. The officials were kept on their toes with a number of photo finishes in the battles for sprint wins and miss & out placings.

In the first session Team Delhi, Keith Thorarison and Mike Renneboog, again took the honours with a blistering time of 17.88 seconds in the team sprints, just under a full second faster than second place Team Brantford, Eric Robertson and Piers Davidge. Team Brantford turned the tables on Delhi and took the last sprint of the session to produce a tie in points for first place. Waterloo and Burlington both made valiant efforts to get away after the sprints and gain a lap on the field but were ultimately brought back into the fold. Dave Byer of the London team started the race despite having severe stomach problems last night. Dave continued to ride stronger as the night progressed and with part! ner Dave St James showed that London will still be a force to be dealt with as he gets back in form. The second session miss and out was so close that on one occasion the judges decision had to be revised when the photo finish was reviewed. Delhi and Brantford tied for points in the event. The session ended with Delhi holding a slim 3 point lead over Brantford.

In the third session team London, Waterloo and Burlington attacked again and again and tried to get away and gain a lap but were brought back. The end result was that the points were the determining factor - the closely matched teams were unable to gain a lap on each other. The final sprint of the night is for double points and Davidge and Robertson really pounded the boards and came home winners taking the first place standing away from Delhi and beating them by one point - 47 to 46.

In the overall standings after 2 days three teams are tied with 18 points ea! ch for first place and Waterloo and London are right on their heels.