London Six: Day 6

Callum Scotson and Cameron Meyer hold off late attack from Mark Cavendish and Peter Kennaugh to win the 2017 London Six Day

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London Six: Day 6

Event Press Release | Photos Drew Kaplan

Callum Scotson and Cameron Meyer held off an almighty late attack from Mark Cavendish and Peter Kennaugh to upgrade their third place from last year to the overall Six Day London win in 2017. The Australians came into the final day leading by two laps, but were quickly deposed after they suffered an early exit in the elimination race.

And they lost out on further points with last place in the 250m Madison time trial, leaving them just a lap ahead of the field heading into the final hour-long Madison Chase. The overall lead changed hands seven times in the opening 40 minutes of the race, but things settled down with the Aussies having regained the top spot with 20 minutes to go.

That was until Cavendish and Kennaugh launched an audacious attack with around 20 laps to go in a last-ditch attempt to steal the title. Their gap stretched out to 100m with just five laps to go, but they were unable to make the juncture and Meyer and Scotson held on for the win – with the Brits in second and two-time defending champions Kenny de Ketele and Moreno de Pauw settling for third.

[pullquote]PETE KENNAUGH “If I look back to the first day, I was so nervous sat in the cabin and hardly even saying a word,” said the Team Sky rider. “I was shaking with nerves and they were a really tough two days but I’ve finally got my track legs back these last two days. I really started to enjoy it, but that last chase was something else. I was on the limit, just holding the wheel, and I looked up and there were 50 minutes to go.”[/pullquote]

“I’ve achieved some good things, some rainbow bands but this is an honourable event to put on the palmares,” said eight-time world champion Meyer. “I’m loving my track cycling again, I’ve got some big targets over the next three years and I’m sure I’ll meet these guys again. Possibly at an Olympic Games now that the Madison is back in, so it’s going to be big three years and I can’t wait for what’s ahead.”

With Scotson adding: “We knew coming up against such big stars, they were always going to throw it at us all the way up to the line. “We were prepared for that, we just had to fight and fight. Every time they got a lap back on us in that final Madison we had to go again no matter how tired we were, but it paid off in the end. The last attack from Cavendish and Kennaugh definitely added a few nerves, when Cav takes off he’s one of the fastest in the world.”

“He opened up that gap real quick, we had to try and stay calm. We knew we had them on the back foot and we couldn’t give them too much road, eventually we had the legs to hold on and it feels so good to win a Six Day London.”

Earlier in the night, Brits Chris Latham and Steven Burke won a hat-trick of races as the latter beat Cavendish in the final sprint to the line of the elimination race. He then laid the groundwork for Latham to mount a late attack in the derny B final and take the race ahead of Theo Reinhardt and Kersten Thiele. And the hat-trick was complete when their time of 12.819s for the 250m Madison TT was not beaten on the final night.

But it was their fellow Brits Kennaugh and Cavendish that got the biggest cheer from the crowd as they tried in vain to gain the lap they needed for the win. Despite their failure to do so a second successive second place for Cavendish – after finishing as runner up with Sir Bradley Wiggins last year – was not seen as a disappointment. “We just had to put all our chips on the table, we tried to get it back and kept getting it back but every time we went they just had us,” said the 30-time Tour de France stage winner.

“I said to Pete as soon as the lap board came down, let’s put all our chips in the centre after 20 laps and go for broke. We just weren’t good enough, simple as, but I’m incredibly proud because I used to babysit for this lad. Now we’re riding at the London Olympic velodrome and he won here in 2012, we’re riding against the best track riders in the world and it’s just been amazing.”

Six Day London was Kennaugh’s first professional Six Day event, and despite suffering through the opening two days, he came out smiling at the end. “If I look back to the first day, I was so nervous sat in the cabin and hardly even saying a word,” said the Team Sky rider. “I was shaking with nerves and they were a really tough two days but I’ve finally got my track legs back these last two days. I really started to enjoy it, but that last chase was something else. I was on the limit, just holding the wheel, and I looked up and there were 50 minutes to go.”

“What a great event, what a great race and what great competition.”

Cavendish and Kennaugh ended the event a lap down on the Aussies but with 94 more points to their name, while de Ketele and de Pauw were just 38 points down on the Manxmen. And with de Ketele having suffered a fractured hip last month, he was at peace with not making it a hat-trick of Six Day London wins. “I’m happy to be on the podium, we gave it our all and we tried to take advantage of the rivalry between the other two couples a bit,” said the former Madison world champion.

“It worked out for the first half of the race but in the end we didn’t have the legs to take another lap. “I’m happy with what we achieved — every victory story has to end somewhere.”

Women
Katie Archibald retained her title as queen of Six Day London with another dominant performance on the final day to pick up a second crown in a row at the Lee Valley VeloPark. The reigning women’s champion came into the final day with a 53-point advantage over 2016 runner-up Neah Evans and never looked in doubt of surrendering her lead.

She rode the final Madison with professional teammate Lydia Boylan and despite finishing second behind Evans and Emily Nelson, she took the overall win by 55 points from her fellow Scot. “The first year Six Day London was run, my teammate Sarah Storey was riding so I knew all about it, and I’ve got in on the action from there and it’s been going well,” said the 23-year-old.

“The Madison was screw up after screw up on my part. I had some really horrible moments and I could hear the commentator in my head – I’m glad for the Madison experience but there’s a lot to build on. “Racing against your training partners doesn’t help with the training because people remember when you flipped them once and they think you’re due one back!

“And it can also be a hindrance because you know the strengths of your teammates and focus on them, often overlooking a rider you don’t race against or train with so often. But that’s the same with every rival, you just have to turn it off.

“And the crowd helps. It’s amazing. You get a taste for it when you go to someone else’s home track and you can tell instantly when a home rider goes on the attack. You feel envious of it. We had that last week at the Europeans and it feels so good this week to be on the home side of it.”

Archibald had begun the women’s competition with an exhibition of strong riding to take both the points and elimination races before finishing third in the scratch race to end the day ahead of Canada’s Allison Beveridge. Another strong showing came on Saturday and she did the rainbow jersey proud with a commanding win in the UCI omnium – winning both the elimination and tempo races, finishing second in the scratch race and defending her lead in the points race to secure the overall victory.

That meant she came into Sunday in a strong position and a third place finish in the 10km scratch race – won by Canada’s Jasmin Duehring – extended her lead to 61 points over Evans heading into the final Madison. Archibald was scheduled to ride alongside fellow Olympic and world champion Elinor Barker, but the Welsh rider was forced to withdraw on the final day due to illness.

That meant she would ride with Team WNT colleague Boylan, whose partner Lydia Gurley had crashed on Saturday and could not retake the track. But things did not go to plan as Evans and Nelson dominated the race, taking 42 points from a total of 45 as Archibald and Gurley came second with 16. “It feels really, really good to have won,” said Evans.

“You always like to win, the fact it is the first women’s Madison here makes it extra special. We had the crowd behind us and it was just a great race.”

With partner and third-placed overall finisher Emily Nelson adding: “It’s great that the women have a Madison. “Neah is a pretty decent sprinter and I’m a fast sprinter so it worked to our advantage that both of us could either sprint or hold position.”

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Sprinters
Eddie Dawkins got the better of compatriot Ethan Mitchell to claim the unofficial Kiwi cup and be crowned top sprinter at Six Day London 2017. The New Zealand pair dominated the sprinters competition all week at the Lee Valley Velodrome, setting the fastest time in the flying 200m time trial each of the six days. Dawkins set four of those times, including a 10.316s time that set a new Six Day London flying 200m record.

The dual between the pair was mainly fought out in the time trial and match sprint, though, with neither of the able to get a win in the keirin all week, instead the victories being spread out with two for Britain’s Matt Rotherham and Germany’s Max Levy, while Nate Koch and Juan Peralta each grabbed a win. There was no doubt who were the fastest men of the week though, and Dawkins could not hide his delight at getting one over on his New Zealand teammate and friend Mitchell.

“As all Kiwi cups go, you’re only the holder until the next battle, so I might be taking this one home with me, but I’ll never keep it forever,” he said. “I feel great, awesome. The opportunity to come here and race here in front of such an amazing crowd is an eyeopener into what Six Day racing is about. “To bring my best mate with me and take over London has been awesome.”

The final day saw Dawkins once again set the fastest 200m flying time trial and then go on to win the match sprint in a photo finish, ahead of Mitchell once again. Peralta then won the final sprint race of the night, the keirin, but it was too little, too late, and Dawkins had already taken the crown. Mitchell finished just six points behind his mate in the end, with Dawkins amassing 266 points, but the former did not let that dim his Six Day London experience.

“Eddie rides a lot of road so he goes uphill really well for a big guy and I think maybe the lack of endurance caught up with me,” said the Olympic silver medallist. I’m a man one in the team sprint so maybe I need to go to Italy and do some more climbing. We didn’t know what to expect coming here, but to be welcomed by the London public and have this sort of atmosphere every night, really makes us want to come back and it’s given us so much motivation for the rest of the season.

“So thank you so much to everybody.”

Tickets for Six Day London 2018 go on general sale on November 1 at 11am. For more information go to www.sixday.com

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RESULTS

Final Overall
1 MEYER / SCOTSON 0 353
2 CAVENDISH / KENNAUGH -1 459
3 DE KETELE / DE PAUW -1 421
4 HAVIK / PIETERS -2 382
5 LARSEN / VON FOLSACH -4 416
6 TORRES / MORA VEDRI -4 346
7 PEDERSEN / HESTER -4 323
8 ENGLISH / DOWNEY -5 354
9 KNEISKY / THOMAS -5 309
10 WOOD / STEWART -8 325
11 BURKE / LATHAM -10 299
12 STOPLER / VAN ZIJL -13 118
13 PSZCZOLARSKI / TEKLINSKI -18 130
14 SCHMIEDEL / BEYER -18 108

Final Chase
1 MEYER / SCOTSON 0 353 30
2 CAVENDISH / KENNAUGH -1 459 25
3 DE KETELE / DE PAUW -1 421 22
4 HAVIK / PIETERS -2 382 20
5 LARSEN / VON FOLSACH -4 416 18
6 TORRES / MORA VEDRI -4 346 16
7 PEDERSEN / HESTER -4 323 14
8 ENGLISH / DOWNEY -5 354 12
9 KNEISKY / THOMAS -5 309 10
10 WOOD / STEWART -8 325 8
11 BURKE / LATHAM -10 299 7
12 STOPLER / VAN ZIJL -13 118 6
13 PSZCZOLARSKI / TEKLINSKI -18 130 5
14 SCHMIEDEL / BEYER -18 108 4

Team Elimination
1 BURKE / LATHAM 30
2 CAVENDISH / KENNAUGH 25
3 WOOD / STEWART 22
4 ENGLISH / DOWNEY 20
5 DE KETELE / DE PAUW 18
6 STOPLER / VAN ZIJL 16
7 REINHARDT / THIELE 14
8 KNEISKY / THOMAS 12
9 SCHMIEDEL / BEYER 10
10 HAVIK / PIETERS 8
11 PSZCZOLARSKI / TEKLINSKI 7
12 PEDERSEN / HESTER 6
13 LARSEN / VON FOLSACH 5
14 HACECKY / KANKOVSKY 4
15 MEYER / SCOTSON 3
16 TORRES / MORA VEDRI 2

60 Lap Derny Final
1 BURKE / LATHAM 10
2 REINHARDT / THIELE 8
3 PEDERSEN / HESTER 7
4 TORRES / MORA VEDRI 6
5 STOPLER / VAN ZIJL 5
6 PSZCZOLARSKI / TEKLINSKI 4
7 SCHMIEDEL / BEYER 3
8 HACECKY / KANKOVSKY 2

250 metres Flying Lap
1 BURKE / LATHAM GBR 12.819 70.208 km.h
2 PEDERSEN / HESTER DEN 12.926 69.627 km.h
3 LARSEN / VON FOLSACH DEN 12.978 69.348 km.h
4 DE KETELE / DE PAUW BEL 13.198 68.192 km.h
5 ENGLISH / DOWNEY IRL 13.275 67.796 km.h
6 CAVENDISH / KENNAUGH GBR 13.292 67.709 km.h
7 WOOD / STEWART GBR 13.324 67.547 km.h
8 HAVIK / PIETERS NED 13.445 66.939 km.h
9 SCHMIEDEL / BEYER GER 13.516 66.587 km.h
10 PSZCZOLARSKI / TEKLINSKI POL 13.527 66.533 km.h
11 KNEISKY / THOMAS FRA 13.539 66.474 km.h
12 TORRES / MORA VEDRI ESP 13.540 66.469 km.h
13 REINHARDT / THIELE GER 13.567 66.337 km.h
14 HACECKY / KANKOVSKY CZE 13.706 65.664 km.h
15 STOPLER / VAN ZIJL NED 14.191 63.420 km.h
16 MEYER / SCOTSON AUS 14.299 62.941 km.h

Women’s Final Overall
1 Katie ARCHIBALD 310
2 Neah EVANS 255
3 Emily NELSON 228
4 Eleanor DICKINSON 218
5 Allison BEVERIDGE 202
6 Lydia BOYLAN 195
7 Jasmin DUEHRING 190
8 Kirsten WILD 185
9 Maria Giulia CONFALONIERI 177
10 Elinor BARKER 130
11 Laurie BERTHON 126
12 Rachele BARBIERI 124
13 Julie LETH 118
14 Nina KESSLER 101
15 Saartje VANDENBROUCKE 91
16 Marion BORRAS 82
17 Rebecca RAYBOULD 74
18 Ana USABIAGA 71
19 Amalie WINTHER OLSEN 64
20 Michaela EBERT 51
21 Irene USABIAGA 50
22 Lydia GURLEY 47
23 Gilke CROKET 46
24 Laura SUESSEMILCH 41

Women’s Scratch
1 Jasmin DUEHRING 50
2 Maria Giulia CONFALONIERI 44
3 Emily NELSON 40
4 Katie ARCHIBALD 36
5 Eleanor DICKINSON 32
6 Neah EVANS 28
7 Allison BEVERIDGE 24
8 Lydia BOYLAN 22
9 Rebecca RAYBOULD 20
10 Marion BORRAS 18
11 Julie LETH 16
12 Laurie BERTHON 14
13 Saartje VANDENBROUCKE 12
14 Amalie WINTHER OLSEN 11
15 Rachele BARBIERI 10
16 Michaela EBERT 9
17 Ana USABIAGA 8
18 Kirsten WILD 7
19 Nina KESSLER 6
20 Gilke CROKET 5
21 Laura SUESSEMILCH 4
22 Irene USABIAGA 3

Womens Madison
1 EVANS / NELSON 0 42 50
2 ARCHIBALD / BOYLAN 0 16 44
3 WILD / KESSLER 0 15 40
4 BEVERIDGE / DUEHRING 0 7 36
5 BERTHON / BORRAS 0 6 32
6 DICKINSON / BARKER 0 1 28
7 BARBIERI / CONFALONIERI 0 -10 24
8 WINTHER OLSEN / LETH 0 -18 22
9 VANDENBROUCKE / CROKEY 0 -20 20
10 USABIAGA / USABIAGA 0 -120 18
11 EBERT / SUESSEMILCH 0 -140 16

Sprinters Final Overall
1 Edward DAWKINS 266
2 Ethan MITCHELL 260
3 Max LEVY 227
4 Juan PERALTA 215
5 Matthew ROTHERHAM 170
6 Nate KOCH 140

Flying 200 metres
1 Edward DAWKINS NZL 10.139 71.012 km.h
2 Ethan MITCHELL NZL 10.201 70.581 km.h
3 Max LEVY GER 10.333 69.679 km.h
4 Juan PERALTA ESP 10.351 69.558 km.h
5 Matthew ROTHERHAM GBR 10.823 66.524 km.h
6 Nate KOCH USA 11.364 63.357 km.h

Keirin
1 Juan PERALTA
2 Ethan MITCHELL
3 Nate KOCH
4 Max LEVY
5 Edward DAWKINS
6 Matthew ROTHERHAM

Sprint Final
1 Edward DAWKINS
2 Ethan MITCHELL
3 Max LEVY
4 Juan PERALTA
5 Matthew ROTHERHAM
6 Nate KOCH

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