Six day races?

[72gmc]

I've been enjoying the writeups of six-day events on pez. Can anyone recommend other books/media on six day racing I could check out? Or pass along any stories here? This bike geek would be thankful.

[zeroking17]

I have fond memories of the several six-days that I attended in Berlin in the early 90s. It is difficult to describe the sheer sensory overload generated by these events. While the racers are perhaps the nominal highlight, there are so many other things taking place at the same time that it is hard absorb all of it.

For example, against the backdrop of cyclists going round and round the track, people are sitting at ringside tables enjoying beer, eating pretzels, smoking cigarettes and generally socializing among themselves, largely igonoring the race; a truly amateur magician is presenting his act (a rabbit kind of disappears if you squint heavily) on a stage off to one side; a band (Einstürzende Neubauten wannabees) is playing on another stage, and so on.

Pantani was there as a special guest. But he didn't ride. He played the drums in some sort of insanely "speed polka" rhythm.

In addition, the racers not riding are lying in full view in their make-shift tents, maybe getting a rubdown or trying to catch forty winks. Occasionally a rider will close the flap on his tent, evidently preferring the claustrophobic privacy of his tiny enclosure to the unblinking public eye.

But, despite all the sideshows competing for the spectators’ attention, it is the metronomic rhythm of the riders perpetually circling the track--like the ticking of a clock--that underpins the whole event, that provides the “glue” holding this spectacle together, and that encourages one’s thoughts to drift into a pleasant remembrance of things past.