Giant riders Danny Stam and Peter Schep were convincing at their home event, the Amsterdam Six Day track race, with a daring last minute attack. Trailing the race leaders for most of the early rounds, Stam and Schep went for broke on the final night by making a long-distance attack which nobody had expected would pay off so well.
Danny Stam fill us in: “We surprised them all. Two Spaniards who had nothing to lose tried a move, and we followed their wheels. Little by little we opened up a winning margin, and that gave us the victory.”
For Stam it was a particularly emotive victory. After last year’s near-miss where he finished second with usual partner Robert Slippens, winning again with top-level substitute Schep confirmed that Stam would be once again in the running throughout the 2006-2007 season.
“A lot of our tactics were based on brute strength rather than picking up points.” Stam said. “That’s our trump card for now, and Peter knows it too. The only problem is that I don’t know if we will be able to carry that sort of tactic again. The other guys now are more than aware they can’t afford to let us get away.”
While we’re talking about track racing (we don’t go on about it too much do we?) we should report on Eric Zabel’s recent success at the Six Days of Dortmund, where he and partner Bruno Risi won with an outstanding victory – they led from the start and finished with four laps to the next competitors.
