Written by: Chris Wallis
Wednesday, November 28, 2007

After seeing the 6 day last year as a aspectator i was keen to go back and capture the excitement on camera and this year i got the chance, at least for 2 nights of it

After a short dirve and a slight longer ferry trip we were zipped our way along E40 towards Gent on a slight cold winter evening, with the life saving tom tom guiding us safely to the hotel we checked in and got an early night ready for a long day tomorrow.

Knowing that the raing didn't start till at least 7 we had plenty of time to do some exploring and tick off a few things off the "things to do in Gent "list

First on the list was a trip of Plum Vainqueur bike shop, which luck would have it was only a few hundred metres from the hotel.

After a look round the museum and the purchase of a souvenir hat myself and Mike came out furnished with a short ride to work up our appitites for lunch


Being short on time, and wanting to be still awake at 2am, meant we had to avoid a proper training ride and some of the normal destinations and follow a less conventional route. Despite getting lost several times, or at least losing the route, we eventually made it onto a very nice straight canal path back and zipped our way with a tail wind all the way back to Gent.


The evening itself was everything i had expected all the fun and excitment of track racing, especially with a home crowd support IIjo Keisse who as normal was on great form and thrilling the crowds.

Although the Senior British riders, Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish were not on top form they certainly put in some very good performances in the invidual events winning quite a few, in spectacular style as well, an impressive Derny performance from Bradley taking two laps from the rest of the riders

The Junior British riders, Peter Kennaugh and Adam Blythe, did exceptionally well, winning a lot of individual events and the UIV cup overall.


The photography challenges were all new to me, not having done much shooting indoors, at least for sports gettign the White balance and the shutter and aperture settings right would be a little bit of trial and error and some educated guesswork as to what would work well.

Thankfully my flashgun held up to the challenge even with rechargables it lasted almost half way through the second day before giving out and needing a fresh set

The most challenging aspect of trying t o take picutres was attempting to get a unique angle and shot that was different from the others there. THe way i went ment edging closer and closer to the riders at the bottomt of the track, getting to the point where if i had stood up they would have hit me, and some of these shots worked really well. and were slighlty different to what the others had.

All in all it was a great weekend and i look forward to going to other 6 days and this one again next year.

Trackback Print

Location: Blogs Wallis Photos Blog