The Amsterdam Six is the first six-day race of the winter season, and it is nice to see the Amsterdam Velodrome back on the six-day circuit. The Amsterdam Velodrome in Sloten (near the airport) has undergone extensive renovation in recent months, including the installation of heating.
On the first night of the race, tat Dutch pairing of Danny Stam and Rob Slippens took an early lead, ahead of Swiss stars Bruno Risi and Kurth Betschart, with Matt Gilmore / Scott McGrory and Jimmi Madsen / Marty Nothstein also right up there. Incidentally, the former world sprint champion (Nothstein) turning into a lean, mean six-day machine... Fat Nick has heard rumours of him losing impressive amounts of weight in his quest to change from sprinting to endurance track racing. (I guess the only different is that in his case, it was upper-body muscle, whereas in my case......) Britain's Tony Gibb, silver medalist in the World's scratch race this year, was hanging in there at the back of the field, learning the rates in his first big-league six-day race.
Fat Nick will be visiting the Amsterdam Six on Wednesday evening, and is looking forward to it immensely - many thanks to Herman and Bea for the kind invitation. If you want to monitor race positions in the meantime, take a look at the Amsterdam Six's own web site (click on "programma" to find each night's results). And of course, Fat Nick's friends at cyclingnews.com will also be carrying up-to-date results each day.
| 1. |
Danny Stam / Robert Slippens |
Netherlands |
3 |
121 points |
|
2. |
Bruno Risi / Kurt Betschart |
Switzerland |
4 |
108 points |
|
3. |
Matthew Gilmore / Scott McGrory |
Belgium / Aus |
1 |
at 1 lap, 91 points |
|
4. |
Silvio Martinello / Marco Villa |
Ita |
2 |
at 1 lap, 87 points |
|
5. |
Jimmi Madsen / Marthy Nothstein |
Denmark / USA |
8 |
at 1 lap, 79 points |
|
6. |
Servais Knaven / Leon van Bon |
Netherlands |
5 |
at 1 lap, 57 points |
|
7. |
Jean-Pierre van Zijl / Robert Hunter |
South Africa |
11 |
at 2 laps, 68 points |
|
8. |
Gerd Dörich / Franz Stocher |
Ger / Austria |
9 |
at 2 laps, 49 points |
|
9. |
Robert Sassone / Roland Garber |
France / Austria |
7 |
at 2 laps, 27 points |
|
10. |
Mario Vonhof / Francis de Jager |
Ger / Netherlands |
12 |
at 4 laps, 34 points |
|
11. |
Matthé Pronk / Jos Pronk |
Netherlands |
6 |
at 6 laps, 21 points |
|
12. |
Lorenzo Lapage / Filip Meirhaeghe |
Belgium |
10 |
at 6 laps, 16 points |
|
13. |
Tony Gibb / Wilco Zuijderwijk |
Britain / Netherlands |
13 |
at 7 laps, 38 points |
To book tickets for the Amsterdam Six, visit the Amsterdam Velodrome's own web site. And while you're here, why not have a look at some photos of cycle racing action from previous years' six-day bike races ?
Do you have any news about the Amsterdam Six? Because of spamming, I don't publish my e-mail address here. But heck, my name is Nick, and the domain name is fatnick.com, so you can probably work out how to contact me <g>.