Feature by British Cycling's Larry Hickmott

My thanks to Nick Rosenthal for his 6-Day photos
used to illustrate this article. See Nick's website for more ...

This week, World champions Mark Cavendish and Rob Hayles are again away 'working', this time in Munich (Germany, picture right) at the six day there. It will be Rob's 28th (give or take a few) pro six day race and his second with fellow World Madison champion Mark Cavendish who made his debut in Dortmund.

I've seen Rob race many times and he's a showman who loves a crowd and the crowd love him. In Dortmund, his partner for that event Mark Cavendish said Rob was a like a 'god' there and no doubt the big man will have his fans in Munich as well.

Unlike the road races held in Europe, the pro Sixes get very little media coverage (on the internet at least) except for the odd result here and there and the fans around the world could be forgiven for wondering why the likes of Rob and 'Cav' got such a drubbing in Dortmund recently and again in Munich at the moment as they sit in last spot overall. Not what you would expect from the World Champions? Those who have raced 'Cav' will know just what a fast rider he is and lets not forget Rob who is a double World Champion this year.

To find out more, last week I sat down with both Mark Cavendish and Rob Hayles to get the inside take on racing a Six Day. The interview with Rob Hayles follows. Click here for the interview Mark Cavendish

Rob's World Championship winner's bike with lots of rainbow strips and bling, bling ...

Rob Hayles
The night before Mark and Rob left for Munich, I sat down with Rob to talk about six day racing. It's been many many years since we've had sixes in this country, a shame because they are a real show piece for the sport and very popular in Europe. Perhaps when we get indoor tracks in London and Scotland, a series of smaller six day type events can be put on with the stars of Europe coming to the UK so people here can see them racing flat out around the wooden bowls we called Velodromes.

That is a subject for the future however - for now I wanted to talk to Rob about the six day life and get a feeling for how they, the six day, fit into the whole track tracking scenario.

Choosing your victories
Rob has been around the Six day circuit off and on for a long time, something we'll go into a little more later but to start with, how is it that GB's World Champions for the Madison are sitting last in the Pro sixes. "A lot of people presume they are the same as the Worlds and so on" Rob explains and because we're World Champions wonder have we not been training, what's our problem and why aren't we winning."

"Its hard to explain and the best cycling comparison I can make is the Track Worlds and races like that are not the same as a Pro six. It's like trying to compare a classics rider to a tour rider - similar but not the same."

And the fact that we only see results of the overall or the night's chases and not the other events that all go into the mix of what a Pro six day rider has to do, doesn't help paint the picture of how Rob and Cav fared in Dortmund because for those trackside, the World Champions did show off their Rainbow stripes in a number of events, winning a few and finishing second many times.

"We had the Rainbow stripes but there was no pressure" Rob says. "Cav is 20 years old and the riders there weren't expecting anything special from him. The promoter Sercu told him 'everyone gets last in their first six day' which is pretty much true. And we showed the rainbow stripes in events we could.."

"On the 4th night we had an Elimination race for white numbers and then one for red numbers and the winners of each do a five lap scratch race. I got up and won mine and was second in the final so the following day, I said to Cav, 'go on, have a go'. Mark did and he blitzed them. He led the guy out in the final and beat him so we certainly didn't disgrace ourselves or the jersey."

"We knew we were not going to show in the chases (Madisons) so we chose events where we could show ourselves. We geared up on the second night and won it (Kilometre) and it wasn't a good ride really so we came away from that with a lot of confidence. I geared up the third or fourth night for the lap time trial and won that and then we swapped positions after that because Cav is probably quicker than me over a lap."

"We knew the promoters wouldn't be happy if we just rolled around not taking laps and then did the same in the other events so we had to go for something and show where we could."

In all, the pairing scored victories in a variety of different events, were second overall in the Kilometre Madison time trials and played their part in the race. Even in the chases, they never struggled - they just did what they needed to in order to stay with the group sticking with the strategy of not taking laps to ensure, one, they got though the week, and two, they had something left to show in the other events.

Contrast this to the home riders, the Germans, who were happy to attack each other all night long to finish one position higher and some with a lower points total than Rob and Cav. "There were a lot of Germans there and you had the mid table teams trying to flick themselves --- like 'we're in 8th and if we can get a lap we'll be seventh' and its like, what the hell does it matter?"

Rob added he would have preferred to finish mid table but it wasn't the end of the world. They played their part because at the end of the day, yes it's a race and a very hard one but its also entertainment. Asked about the pairing of Aldag and Zabel who have made their name on the road in Europe, Rob says "if a team turns up and it's the only six they are doing, they can be a bit of a nightmare for the guys who are doing the whole lot."

"We only had three or four days between the first two I did, Amsterdam and then Dortmund. Zabel and Aldag meanwhile had been training for nine days and came in prepared, not tired. Two laps into the first chase and without any warning, they were on the attack and next thing you know, there are four big pile ups. Things like that don't go down well."

"Zabel - what a rider though, he treats every race as if its his first and was in the cabin as nervous as if it was his first which is what makes him so good. But he needed to chill out as there were six nights to go!"

Hayles six day apprenticeship
Nowadays its all a far cry from the early days when Rob was starting out doing the Six Days. In Dortmund, Cav told me that Rob was treated like a god by the spectators to which Rob smiled because he likes to 'show off' and he may not be as young as 'Cav' but he has all the showman qualities of his dad who was a professional wrestler.

"The German Sixes are good, as is Gent where there is a big British crowd" Rob explained. "A lot of the post we get through the Federation post is from Germans wanting pictures and autographs. Its nice to have that and being able to race in the worlds jersey feels good and that helps. I have been riding pro sixes since '97 on or off and have nearly done thirty at varying levels"

Belgian rider Iljo Keisse signs autographs at a 6-Day, Rob recently asked for some photos for a new card -- it seems being 'God' has meant giving out lots of 'business' cards. (photo: Nick Rosenthal)

He started out by riding an amateur six in 1992 which he says was horrendous. "It was ridiculously hard" he says going on to add "I rode it with Paul Jennings from Preston and we basically lived in a hotel for three nights and then spent three nights in the car. My dad sent us out there with a Calor gas that he had when he was wrestling and at first we were saying 'what are we going to use this for' but we ended up cooking beans and tuna behind the back wheel of the car along the canal out of the wind. We came back from that absolutely nailed and I couldn't move for a week."

The next two I did a few years later in Germany, I was fine - tired but with good form. But the pro ones are different again. You're there from between 7 or 8pm to 2 or 3am in the morning and there are varying degrees of toughness to these sixes. In some of them, you get longer rest but Gent is renowned for being one of the hardest. The track there is a bit small for me and the door on the track always gives me grief but at the Gent Six there is nothing but us - no sprinters, no stayers etc. So we're constantly up-down-up on the track. At Dortmund we at least had the stayers racing so we ended up having an hour or so where we weren't racing."

A hard life in the six
What makes the six days so hard according to Rob is the hours the riders do. It's a contrast to his normal professional as a performance based rider. On one hand, in a six the riders are there to entertain and race flat out for six days to do that but as a performance based rider, Rob's job is to win medals in events that last an hour if that. They are he says, totally different jobs which is why Gent will be his last six this winter as he backs off the Six Days and switches jobs to prepare for the World Cups, Commonwealth Games and World Track Championships.

In Dortmund Rob says that there were some things that helped like having the hotel just across the car park from the track but he still wasn't getting to the room until between 1.30 and 3am in the morning and then getting to sleep is always difficult after banging around the track at 60kph for hours on end. Rob reckons that they weren't getting to sleep until four or five some mornings and breakfast wouldn't be until midday. This was followed by the main meal at 4 or 5pm before racing between 7 or 8. That alone can send the body into a spin.

Is a six harder than a stage race I asked? Rob has done plenty of both in his time and it was a question that Mark Cavendish had also asked Rob. "I'd take a stage race every time" Rob replied adding neither are easy and the 'hardness' is different."

Right: The sweat on the legs and face just one indicator of the pace of the chases. (photo: Nick Rosenthal)

"In a six, it's just the relentless up and down onto the track where the racing is so intense you forget what you did in such and such an event during the week. It's got better as I've gone on though. In the first one I did in Zurich, it was ridiculous.

The last two nights finished at 5am in the morning and at half seven I was taking off to come home. Fortunately I had a taxi from the airport home because I would never have been able to have driven home to Portsmouth because I just didn't know where the hell I was and the head was still spinning."

Learning the Skills of a Six Day Rider
Some may think that having won a World Championship that the skills the riders like Mark Cavendish have are enough to go into a six and be competitive. As Mark says very apologetically in his interview, he is still learning but then for a 20 year that is hardly surprising - World Champion or not. Rob knew that Mark would need help especially in a six day pro race. In a World Cup or World Championship, slight flaws in technique can be smoothed over and not be too damaging to the result or the legs in an event over an hour. Over six days, those flaws become cracks and can swallow a rider up in they are not careful.

"You can be the best in the world for an hour but after three of four nights of riding with someone who technically is getting better but isn't as good as he will be, it is tiring for both of you. It's the little things like being thrown in on the wheel and when you see your partner, not to back off. There is for example a tendency, especially when you're struggling, to see the partner 30 metres ahead and start to back off and give a shorter change. This means I'm then I'm of the wheel and it escalates from there. So what you can get away with over an hour, you find adds up and up over six nights and it takes its toll."

Right: Matthew Gilmore gets a massage in his cabin during the evening (photo: Nick Rosenthal)

There were other things that Rob had to impress on Cav who wanted to race everything where as Rob knew what was going to happen if he did that and had to hold his partner back. To make sure he saved something for the events they were looking to do well in, namely the Flying laps and Madison Kilo's.

To do this, they were measured in how they rode the chases - they didn't get dropped but never took laps either. And in the Team Elimination events, they weren't the first team out but they would choose the moment to be eliminated and then get to their cabin for some rest.

"It may sound weird" Rob explains "but I was once like he is now and wanted to race everything as a kid. In a six day you just don't do that. You can't win everything and have to save as much as you can. It's like a stage race on the road where you don't wait until the peloton is lined out before you move up - you try and conserve as much as you can."

The first problem Rob faced coming up with a strategy for the Dortmund six was neither Rob nor Mark knew what to expect. "I knew I had decent form after being sixth in Amsterdam" Rob says "so didn't expect to get a kicking, but I didn't know how Cav was going to be. If I remember rightly, we took a lap in that first chase but then after that Cav was really winded."

Rob then explained that this meant he had to do a double turn and he says you do about three to three and a half laps per turn so that meant he was doing six or seven laps in the chase before getting a rest. Having seen Mark on his day win races with ease here in the UK, it's not as if he isn't one hell of a quick bike rider - its just the sixes need a rider to be not only technically adept which helps conserve energy, but to posses the endurance to recover from the efforts minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.

"I told Cav, missing turns wasn't problem while ever I had good legs and we weren't going for laps. The problems come if we're trying to take laps and I'm left in the race having to do double turns -- that could be a big problem. So I said to him after the first night, we sit in the wheels and don't take lap because if you do, we'll end up losing two because you're knackered."

"I could have been a bastard and told him we have to take laps because we're last but if I had gone out there and killed Cav in his first six, he may not have wanted to come back and do more and it doesn't do me any favours either."

"The promoters like Sercu are not daft. They can see what is going on in the race and can see you're looking after your partner, as Brad has done with me when I've not had good form. Brad has had to do the same for me as I'm doing for Cav so I know what it is like. That is one of the reasons why I try to do that because I'm like that. Its pretty grim when you're on the back foot at a six day I can tell you."

As if to underline what Cav was in for in his first Six, Rob says "Everyone expected Cav to struggle. In Amsterdam they were asking me how my partner was and Sercu knew what would happen. Slippens and Stam almost got sent home in their first six a few years ago and now look at them. I know Cav was getting frustrated because he has been riding in Team Sparkasse and there were four riders from his team plus Cav in the six."

"Cav couldn't understand why in crit racing they are the same guys he has to push to keep them in the front group because he is so much stronger than them, and then in Dortmund they seem to be taking laps at will. I had to get through to him that opposed to what we do during the year which is performance based, Worlds, Olympics, Commonwealths, etc - that is not what they do - they ride a bike because its their job and they are six day riders and are bloody good at it."

"To bring them over to a Manchester in Revolution and put them up on a 250 track and everyone riding 92.6 disc'd up in a 40 minute madison, we could probably kick their asses. Because that is more of a performance based type effort. The six day is not like that - totally different and is something you have to get in there and learn how it works and be part of the system."

"People say its okay -- you get told what to do and to a certain extent you do in some of the support races where they'll try and work something out between the top teams but they are still fighting amongst themselves. The lower teams are always fighting for everything so its definitely not a blackboard at dinner to say you finish here! Even when the racing is not full on, its hard."

The Worlds versus a Six Day
Rob and I then talked about the other differences between the pro sixes and the championships/ amateur sixes. "I love watching the amateur sixes" Rob says "because it is just a battle for an hour where as with the pros its not so much like that. You do your turn at the front, swing up and a generally go to the back of the peloton and it keeps moving which is what makes it so fast. Where as in the amateur events you don't want to be at the back so you swing up and get back in the group within the top half a dozen at least. So in that respect its different."

"In the pros also, you're all looking out for each other because at the end of the day if you take someone off, you might take yourself off but remember its their job and this is where a lot of these guys earn there money. Its work which is why they try and look after each other. They are still attacking each other and there is no love lost between them in wanting to beat each other, but there are ways of doing it. Its not like the amateur ones where someone will ride over you to win, the pros do give each other some room"

Underlining how hard they are, Rob goes on to say "In the chases, the riders in a six are constantly attacking. They'll be watching the score board and keeping an eye on who's on what lap. If someone is on 0 laps and another team is 1 lap down, the riders down one lap will definitely not want the team on 0 laps to take another lap where as if the attackers are at two laps down, another team may let it go because at best the attackers will only get even."

The six is an endurance thing according to Rob. "It's just intervals with fatigue. It's also a mental thing where you have to know how hard you can push yourself. The problem unless your legs are totally shot, is when you're 'resting' during the madison chase because you're breathing through your ears having just made an effort. You feel awful and as you roll around waiting for your partner, you think to yourself 'I need time out'. Then the time comes you have to go again and you think 'I'll do one more turn'.

"You get yourself up to speed and get thrown and find on the wheels in the chase it's fine. Then you come out and the cycle starts again. It's just trying to get through to Cav that its likely he'll feel worse out of the race than in it. If you're legs are gone and you're getting dropped, that's something different but there is this mental thing about knowing how hard you can push yourself."

The Hand Slings
During the course of the interview, Rob had mentioned that the 'change' (hand sling) was one area where Mark was still learning. Mark himself in his interview says the same. The sixes may be different to the Worlds and World Cups but the techniques learnt in them will have a knock on effect for the performance based events.

Talking about the Track Worlds when they came away with the Rainbow stripes, Rob agrees that the learning process from the sixes will help make Mark better for future World Madison Championships where an improved technique will help them save some of their energy for others parts of the race. Rob then gave us an ever deeper insight into the technical nature of the hand sling.

"It helped in Los Angeles that Cav, although he's a lot smaller than me, he's not that much lighter - so there didn't feel like that was that much of a weight imbalance. With Brad (who Rob won a Bronze medal with in the Olympics), I am a little bit heavier than him but because of our similar height the weight is more even but we have such a long change that it to can affect things. It was quite nice riding with Cav to get a shorter punchier change but then in Dortmund, once you start getting tired, you lose the power in the change and the technique starts to go. He did though get better and better as the week went on and was a lot better on the 4th or 5th nights."

"I've been riding Madisons since 1992 and I wouldn't say I'm the most technically adept at madison riding but I know how to make it easier for myself and my partner. You need to learn about eye to hand contact, when to come in, when to stay high. It's not just the connection between the hands and letting go but it's the coming in to the change, knowing where to come in, what speed to come in at especially when riders are attacking all the time.

"For example, you look and see your partner off the front coming down the straight and then see three riders coming over the top to attack. What do you do? Stay high and wait 'til they pass and then change or come straight down and let them attack over you as well. You can't say either way because every time is different. You have got to feel the change - it's not a golf swing but something you have to have a feel for."

"One night, we were in the line with Slippens and Stam and I'd be coming in on Slippens wheel and Cav would be rolling around with Stam sitting right on his wheel. Not only that, as I grabbed his hand, he was letting me go right through and back before releasing which was throwing me right up the back of Slippens. Mark is learning about getting a feeling for what he has to do. Normally in that situation, you would have Mark back off a little bit from Stam and as soon as he feels me grab him, he would push off me to stop me. It's just the little things like that where there is a lot of nervous energy being wasted as well. You need to be relaxed with your partner and need to 'float'. Be strong and powerful but relaxed."

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