Alpenrose Six Day

I had the chance to race with Andrea Fisk at the Woodland crit yesterday and we started throwing around the idea of racing the Six Day at the velodrome. I didn't know much about the race, but it's pretty simple. You race as a team of two each night for six days. Each night you do two mass start races and a Madison. Each night you get points for each race and the points carry over so that the team with the most points at the end of the week wins. I have maybe done 4 mass start races on the track in my life. Kind of intimidating, but I figured I could just hang out and not get in any trouble and not do anything stupid, like cause a wreck. The Madison is a beautiful race. It's pretty simple. One teammate races for a lap and then you switch. The switch is the tricky part, you have to hand sling your teammate that is coming in up to speed to keep up with the rest of the racers. Here's an example:



Neither Andrea or I had ever attempted this. There is no rule that you have to throw your teammate, you can just ride up to them, match speed, and then have them take off. The problem is, the throw really gives them an advantage to keep up with the other teams. So, I have until tomorrow to figure out our game plan. I guess this could be called my induction into track racing, sounds more like a trial by fire.