Six day races (Madisons)

[foo on patrol]

Do they still have these in Australia these days, and have you ridden in one recently? The Nerang club on the Gold Coast used to have one from Boxing day to New Years Eve. Fantastic things to ride in, if you were fit, and had a good partner.

Gary

[brentono]

Gary,
No-one seems to want to wade in here, and probably there would
be very few on this site, that have ridden, even a madison, which
is a pity. They are great fun, and quite a spectacle.
As for 6's don't think they have had one for many, many years.
Sounds like you're the one, if you raced at Nerang Club in one.
This Madison is still going...
http://www.madison.org.au/
On the Zurich site, there was a great video, time-motion, setting up the track,
racing, then deconstruction, don't see it there now, but they may put it back up,
it was great.
http://www.sixdays-zuerich.ch/
As in Europe, take a look at this Zurich 6 set-up, unreal, and this is what we need in Aus.
Was a guy around was trying to push this idea back in my time, to have a transportable
track, which now could be set it up at the Burswood Dome here in Perth,
run Madison/6's then truck it around Australia, great idea.
Madisons are great, and once you get good teams, familiar with each other, and the
changes can been smooth, it makes for great racing.
We were thrown in at the deep end, as juniors, and competing with seniors, in all
out madisons, quite a lot to learn, and you did it quick, or else.
Ended up winning a State Madison Championship, back in the Day.
Would be great if we could get SBS to give any Madisons, or 6-Days some airing.
Enjoy your ridng, mate.
Cheers,
Brenton

[foo on patrol]

Hi Brenton,
They were great to ride in, and fantastic to get your fitness up. A very good spectator event also, because of the nature of riders changing, all the time,and the different sections through out the night. Mind you, you would wear out at least two sets of rubber for the event.
The year I finished third, after losing my partner to a bad crash in a sprint ( he ended up doing a high speed roll along the top of the finishing straight fence , and damaging his leg and hip badly) Shane Sutton and one of my best mates one it. I finished that night by myself.( we were running second at the time)The following night they teamed me up with another rider, that lost his partner in the same fall, while losing a lap and halving my points.
I struggled on with this new partner, that had no stamina, and not much better as far as sprinting power went for the next three nights. On the final night I got back the lap, they took off me, and with the points, we managed to gather through various challenges, ended up with third place , and $145 for the week.
The new partner was quite stoked, even if I got up him all the time, for not giving it all, as far as going outside his comfort zone. I just told him to grow some b***s and try harder than he had in his life, and stay with the leaders all the time, and I would do all the hard yards.
Gary

[toolonglegs]

THe 6 day events over here are really struggling.Crowds in Germany are non existent these days...I will have to pop over to the Grenoble 6 day this year before it dissapears!.
Shame..you look at those old B&W pics of the hey day of track and they are amazing!.

[foo on patrol]

THe 6 day events over here are really struggling.Crowds in Germany are non existent these days...I will have to pop over to the Grenoble 6 day this year before it dissapears!.
Shame..you look at those old B&W pics of the hey day of track and they are amazing!.

How long do they go for each day? The ones I road were three hours every night and were at the end of three hours of support racing, for all the age groups.
Gary
Danny Clark was our best rider in these events, on the world circuit.

[brentono]

Gary,
That's quite a story, on your 6-day and amazing, as changing parteners well into
it, would be hard. Never did a Six, but did a lot of Madison's with various parteners.
You need a stayer and a sprinter, as a good pair, who are familiar with each others
style. There have been some great pairs over the history of the 6-Days.
Knew Danny at the beginning of his career, he was well suited, and stuck to
it for many years. It was a hard circuit back then, met many other competitors,
over my time in Europe, and they we're hard crew, many of them.
(It was basically a travelling circus back then, move from city to city, with a day to travel)

Toolonglegs,
From what you say, maybe a lull in Germany. It would seem the Zurich style,
with breakdown/transportable tracks, at the right venues, is the way to go.
And would be the only way it would work in Australia, from my view, and opinion.
Enjoy the ones, you do get to, they must still be a great spectacle.

Keep the fires burning,
BrentonO

[-tim]

I was lucky enough to be in Rotterdam in January for the Six-Day over there and it was nuts. I only went on the first night (Thursday) but there was still a fair crowd, granted a lot of them were corporate types in the centre with the free beer!!

Highlight was the derny race, Leon Van Bon taking it out after his derny broke down with 20 mins to go...it miraculously restarted and rejoined the race with 8 laps left after Van Bon rode solo, sitting on other riders wheels. It was a real highlight. The other highlight was Sebastian Donadio singing Let It Be in the interval!! LOL.

Oh and seeing Theo Bos as an enduro...he still has a mean sprint.

AND Bauge...

YEP I enjoyed myself!