The sport and culture of track cycling

North American Six-Day Racing

Forest City Velodrome, London, Ontario CANADA

There has been a revival of six-day racing in Canada and the USA. Presently there are two six-day races at the FCV in London Ontario (Fall and Spring). The past two years has seen a winter six-day race at the Burnaby Velodrome in British Columbia. We have information that a six-day has been held at the Bloomer Park Velodrome in Detroit and another in the US northwest at the Alpenrose Velodrome. This past winter Keven Lacombe (Can) and Adrian Hegyvary(Usa) won the evenings competition during the UIV Talents Cup at the 6-day races in Berlin and Copenhagen. As well, Martin Gilbert (Can) and Ryan McKenzie (Can) took 3rd place at the Los Seis Dias de Mexico in Aguascaliente, Mexico. The first time Canadians were on a international six-day podium in 69 years. Since the publication of book "The Six-Day Bicycle Races" by Peter Nye et. al. there has been a significant increase in the number of hits on our website: http://www.6dayracing.ca Things appear to be moving in the right direction for a six-day revival.

The question I would like to have answered is: What are the conditions necessary for six-day racing to return as an important endurance track event for our gifted North American youth?

Arnold

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Comment by Jaco Scholtz on December 4, 2007 at 1:46pm: Hi Arnold,

It is easy to get riders, but the challenge is to get spectators.

The key would be to attract non cycling spectators to the track.

I've hosted Maximum Velocity 3 in South Africa over 1 day and attracted 150 cyclists with heats to be held in junior and elite categories since UCI rules only permit 24 riders on a 250m track and I had close to 50 per category.

On the flip side I had 250 spectators attending although I had a beer garden, bike expo and BMX stunt riders as additional entertainment.

How does one get 2,000-5,000 spectators to watch track cycling (outside of Europe). Remember that one is competing against television sports, clubs & pubs etc.

What is the European recipe - can it be applied outside of Europe?

Ciao

Jaco