October 22, 2007 (London, ON) – There were record breaking temperatures outside, but it was even hotter on the inside of the Forest City Velodrome at the London 6 Day bike races. It was like racing in the middle of summer.

Not only was it hot outside, the hotter racing action, controversy with lapped teams, Team Ontario failing to gain a lap on the entire field, Team London hitting the deck for the second straight night, Juniors gain a lap in the “B” Madison, Teams being relegated for dangerous riding…… I could go on but you need to be in the stands to see some great track racing (yes that was a slap at London Media).

How it unfolded: Day 3 of the London 6 Day

After two hard nights of racing and numerous warnings to all the teams to ride straight lines and use etiquette during the Madison’s and elimination races, the “Commies” laid down the law early in the Elite Scratch race as the Team Ontario squad were relegated for rough and dangerous racing in the final three laps of the race. Blocking is a tactic that although tolerated at times in the final sprint can be very dangerous. “It’s one of those things,” said Danielle DeFranceschi (DD), from Team Ontario who was DQ’d from the scratch race finishing order – for trying to protect his position a little too aggressively.

That penalty got all the teams scrambling to find out what was allowed and what was going to be penalized…. it felt like we were at a hockey game and the teams were trying to plead with the “Commies” for clarification. Louie (the Commie) was having none of it and indicted he was going to rule with an iron fist so he wanted to see bike racing not roller derby.

Back to the real story of the racing, The early part of the first “B” everything was pretty routine, just after the mid-way point sprints the Purple team of Taylor Martin and Joe Brennan (New Jersey) attacked the rest of the teams who were caught sleeping. Team Black who is leading the overall race after the first 2 days of racing had to dig a little too deep to close the gap and the Red Team of 16 year olds (Aitinson & Bester) went over the top of the now gassed leading teams.

The jam continued and continued and time was added to the race as the Red team closed in on the leading Black team to put them down a lap and thus take over the lead of the “B” 6 day. With the intense action the spectators were happy to give even more preems to the “B’s ” as they were really putting on a very entertaining show for the fans.

At the end of the racing Team Red had a lap lead on the field, Team Black & Team Purple are tied on the same lap, with Team Green and Team Blue down 2 & 4 laps respectively.

Now, back to the “Elite” race that saw the DQ in the opening scratch race, the boy’s were on their best behaviour and the racing continued with another $800 in preems on the line during the two afternoon Madisons. Shortly after the racing started Team London (Throop & Lundy) attacked and again could see the back of the pack before the hammer fell for the Can-Am Team of (Abbey and Crosby) and 10 laps latter it was all together and the preems started.

With the flurry of sprints and money being tossed around the riders did not have a chance to recover, late in the session Team London attacked again just before the end of the Madison and quickly gained 3/4 of a lap. Maybe the field took them for granted as they continued to roll, the field waited too long to chase, however the lap was not awarded for another 25 painful laps as team after team had their time on the front to try to pull Team London back. But nnothing worked and in the end Throop and Lundy caught the back of the pack and were awarded the lap and the $100 for being the first team to gain a lap in the 6 Day .

In the second Madison it was survival of the fittest, preem after preem, jam after jam, then a touch of a wheel and Lundy goes down, luckily just scrapes and he will return to racing next week.

Teams were hanging on for their lives, no one was going to give in, the an attack by Quebec put everyone on the defensive, this put the London and Delhi Teams in trouble and eventually lost a lap to the field.

As the race came to a close one last $100 preem was put up and Team Ontario took the pace over the top and all the other teams were left 1/2 a lap down. Now the question was whether (DD & DeJong) could lap the field before the 10-to-go cards went in the air. Upon review late into the night and this morning. it was determined that there are still three teams on the same lap as the lapping process began after the 10 laps to go up. A very close situation for Can-Am & Quebec as they benefited from the commissaries ruling.

Racing continues next Friday & Saturday night at 7pm, with the finale on Sunday afternoon at 1pm.

As always for more information please go to www.ForestCityVelodrome.ca