Night four of the 2010 Amsterdam Six Day, saw the start of the UIV U23 “mini six” which is in fact only three days long. The first Six Day of the winter season is always dangerous as riders nerves run high while they “break the ice” of the Six Day Season. And with this comes the mistakes and the crashes.No fewer than three separate crashes took place in the first race of the U23 riders. Two riders breaking collarbones and three others leaving the track with serious wood burn. The young inexperienced South African team did well however, in their first European Event, staying out of trouble and staying upright.
In the women’s event, Kacey Manderfield dropped further back to 9th place overall. Manderfield and fellow American Mandy Marquardt (lying 14th overall), are struggling to race against the aggressive European riders. Both are products of the defensive style of racing, seen in most female American track racing. Now in the depth of offensive racing, the riders are struggling to hold their position and put themselves in contention to score points. They will need to adopt a more proactive approach if they want to survive in the European peleton.In the Sprint tournament, the Americans didn’t fair as well as last night, but Gideon Massie still managed 2nd in the Match Sprints, and Dean Tracy 2nd in the Keirin.
The German pairing of Roger Kluge and Robert Bartko move back into first position in the Six Day, fighting hard against Franco “Marvelous” Marvulli and Dutch National Champion, Nici Terpstra.
***Nights Five & Six:
Amsterdam Six Day – Nights 5 and 6
The last two nights have not done too much in terms of changing the standing in the overall classification. Dutch rider Vera Koedooder is still dominating the fields with wins in both events on Friday Night (Night 5). Irish rider Jennifer O’Rielly, was the only international rider to challenge the Dutch superstar, with a close 2nd place in the points race.
Saturday evenings final night of racing was very fast, as none of the riders felt like they had anything to loose. Koedooder was out of reach with regards to loosing the Six, and could afford to throw caution to the wind with fierce attacks almost from the get go. The remaining riders would do all they could to hang on and hope that the race fragmented enough as to shuffle the over-all standings for the general classification. If Koedooder wasn’t on the front, anyone and everyone else was.
For the Northeast Velodrome rider Kacey Manderfield, the weekend finished in disappointment as she slipped further down the GC to 11th overall, only 1 point behind Samatha Van Steenis and a top 10 placing. The crash on the very first night had a major impact on Manderfield who was clearly not her confident self as the week progressed.
“Kacey is a good rider who doesn’t usually get intimidated by close quarter riding,” said her coach Kurt Begemann. “But anyone who falls down from the top of a 52 degree banked track at 25 mph is going to be shaken for a few days. It’s a pity it went that way, but that’s racing”, said Begemann.
For the Northeast Velodrome and Cycling Park, they can say that they had a rider represented in a European Pro Six Day Event. Not too many Velodromes in the US can say they are sponsoring homegrown talent and helping them get over-seas experience. Hopefully this is a first step in fostering more riders into the European Six Day Scene.
For the American Sprinters, they capped the week off well, with Gideon Massie finishing 2nd overall in the Sprinters Cup. Dean Tracy took home 4th, and Andy Lakatosh finished 6th overall in his first European Six Day. Tracy and Massie will be invited back to Holland in January 2011, to compete at the Rotteram Six Day.
Overall Standings:
Overall Standings: Zesdaagse van Amsterdam.
EINDSTAND ZESDAAGSE VAN AMSTERDAM 2010
P Professional Teams (MEN) RND PT
1 Kluge/Bartko (DUI) 0 285
2 Stam/Van Bon 0 247
3 Marvulli/Terpstra (ZWI/NED) 0 236
4 Stroetinga/Lampater (NED/GER) 1 213
5 Ligthart/Mouris 1 162
6 Havik/Schep 4 172
7 Mertens/De Ketele (BEL) 6 108
8 J.Pronk/M.Pronk 12 71
9 Van der Zwet/Stöpler 13 103
10 R.Kreder/M.Kreder 14 65
11 Kneisky/Marguet (FRA/ZWI) 24 87
12 Hester/Traksel 24 58
13 Veldt/Jonkman 30 87
14 Vermeulen/Pieters 35 76
EINDSTAND SPRINT CUP
P Pro Sprinters PT
1 Teun Mulder 21
2 Giddeon Massie (V.S) 30
3 Yondi Schmidt 44
4 Dean Tracy (V.S) 55
5 Hugo Haak 57
6 Andy Lakatosch (V.S) 64
7 Matthijs Buchli 65
EINDSTAND VROUWEN ZESDAAGSE
P Women PT
1 Vera Koedooder 180
2 Roxanne Knetemann 88
3 Kelly Markus 68
4 Jennifer O'Reilly (IER) 44
5 Nina Kessler 35
6 Ilona Meijering 31
7 Birgitta Roos 28
8 Lotte van Hoek 17
9 Silvie Haakman 15
10 Samantha van Steenis 13
11 Kacey Manderfield (V.S) 12
12 Nathaly van Wesdonk 7
13 Joan Boskamp 2
14 Ymke Stegink 0
15 Mandy Marquardt (V.S) 0
