Ghent sixdays 2012

I think I was about nine years old when I came to my First six in Ghent. My grandfather, who rode the track as an amateur, introduced me to what would become THE sport of my life. Those were the days of Patrick Sercu, Peter Post, a young Eddy Merckx, but also Dieter Kemper, The Phenninger brothers and many others. In that period the riders rode more than five hours. I would almost say today the boys have a luxury live. I remember that on Wednesday afternoon we, the school kids, could come to the track for a special children afternoon. That included special races, sprints, point races etc…  In those races the riders couldn’t win money or points, but sweets, caps, photographs etc, that they throw out in the in the cheering crowd. Hundreds of little boys and girls and some schoolteachers tried to grab some of the gadgets. Even for these races some of the riders became famous, I will always remember Willy Debosscher and Gerben Karstens who were always up for a joke on the track. Willy turning around and riding in the opposite direction or Gerben was knocking a box of candy out of the hands of a rider, only for the pleasure of the kids.

Another thing that disappeared is the special students championships. One early evening in the six days the local Uni students could race their National student’s championships. Don’t have to tell you that lots of supporters turned up that night and beer was flowing.

When I later came back to the sixes, early 80’s, the famous time of some of the best Australian track riders began. Guys like Danny Clark, Don Allan, Gary Wiggins, Tom Sawyer. Don’t have to tell you that after few events the Ghent crowd loved the Kangaroos.  Danny would become the biggest star in those years, together with Don, and later with Anthony Doyle. But also with local star Etienne De Wilde. The same Etienne De Wilde who would guide Matt Gilmore trough his first sixes. Unfortunately now these years we don’t see many Australians on our Ghent track. Only Glenn O’Shea and Leigh Howard been present in the last few years. Despite great results and even winning the U23 sixes we haven’t seen the Law brothers or Alex Carver back in “het Kuipke”

But tonight, the before the start of second stage of this seventy second edition, we have at least a Victorian leader. Glenn O’Shea leads the pack with local man Iljo Keisse together with 3 other formations.

Will be back soon.