February 6/06 3:14 am - London Velodrome Six Day Final Report

Posted by Editor on 02/6/06
 

London Velodrome Six Day: Final Day
Courtesy Rob Good

The organizers of the Forest City 6-Day Bike Race would like to thank the spectators (who battled the weather to get to the races over the weekend), the volunteers, Intermission Racers, Velo-Kids and racers for making our second 6-Day Race a success. We are already preparing for our 3rd 6-Day Event in late March.

How it Unfolded

After 5 nights of aggressive racing The Brantford Team of Eric Robertson & Piers Davidge had a 2 point lead on the Delhi Team of Mike Renneboog & Keith Thoranson. The only way for Delhi to win the 6-Day Race was to finish first on the night and have Brantford finish in 3rd. Racing was very active throughout the evening of racing.

Early on in the first of three 30 minutes sessions the attacks and counter-attacks were happening every few minutes, but none of the teams were able to gain any advantage. Late in the first session the aggressive teams from London (John Craig & Dave Byer) and Waterloo (Neil Dignam & some old guy - Rob Good) were continually splitting up the pack, at one point the Delhi & Brantford Teams were down by 1/2 a lap, but managed to bring it back together. Nearing the end of the session, Team Burlington (Garnett Abbey & (Junior) - Vince Dejong) went on a flyer and caught a break as the 10 to go warning came up. They gained an advantage that could not be over come by the other teams. At the end of the first session Brantford, Burlington & Delhi were separated by 1 point. The 6-Day Race was still up for grabs.

In sessions 2 & 3 of the evening the spectators got into the swing of things by generously putting primes on the line. The sprints keep the pace high, and if the pace slowed below 44 kph the Waterloo team would spice things up with attacks from the top of the track. Again no team was able to gain a lap, then out of the blue a spectator put up $100.00 for a team to gain a lap. Still no team went away to take the cash that was up for grabs. The primes continued and even delayed the finish of the race. With 2 minutes left in the bike race, with Delhi watching Brantford, and Burlington waiting to counter the next attack from the Waterloo team, off the front rolled the London Team, no-one chased, 20m gap, 40m gap ... by the time the reaction from the field came a 1/2 lap lead was very quickly established, within 15 laps the London team took their lap and the $100.00 prize.

In the end the Brantford Team came home the winners of a very hard fought battle over 6 (what seemed like endless) nights of racing.

In total 3254 laps of full on racing was covered by the teams over the 6 nights. $1,300 in Primes was given away. A total of 750 spectators attended the action. Only 1 spill happened over the 6-Day event with no more than bruises to the racers involved.

Complete results can be found: www.ForestCityVelodrome.ca

In 2 weeks is the Short Track Championships, Individual timed events and mass start races. enter to day racing begins at 4pm on February 18th & 9am on February 19th. Registration Form

The next 6-Day event is March 31st - April 9th, If you want to race, we are
setting up the schedule now. Do not delay - apply today!