Six Days of London

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Six Days of London" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Six Day London

Race details
Date	22-27 October 2019
Region	London, United Kingdom
Discipline	Track
Organiser	Madison Sports Group
Web site	sixday.com
History
First edition	1923 (1923)
Editions	25 (as of 2018)
First winner	Aloïs Persijn (BEL)  Pierre Vandevelde (BEL)
Most wins	Patrick Sercu (BEL) (8 wins)
Most recent	Elia Viviani (ITA)  Simone Consonni (ITA)

The Six Day London is a six-day track cycling race held annually in London, United Kingdom.^[1] The competition consists of six consecutive evening sessions of track cycling: Madison, Sprint, Elimination, Keirin, Derny and Team Time Trial disciplines.^[2] Six day invites the world's elite Men's and Women's riders, as well as sprinters and emerging talent from around the world. The overall winner is the team which takes the most laps.

Laps are primarily "taken" through the Madison and Points Race events. However, teams also race to accumulate points in the other disciplines, such as the Elimination, Team Time Trial and Derny events. The collection of points is vital as it can help establish an overall leader, should teams find themselves with the same number of laps. (See Outline of the Event)

Six Day Cycling is best known for its signature event, the Madison (named after Madison Square Garden in New York City, where the two-man format was devised), where both riders may be on the track at the same time, taking turns to race and hand-slinging each other back into action. Six Day events also offer a unique party like atmosphere, providing dance music as a backdrop to the drama on the track.

Six Day Cycling originated in Britain in 1877, where its popularity spread to many regions of the world and there are now seven events held globally. Initially, individuals competed alone with the winner being the individual who completed the most laps over six days. However, this format was changed in the early 20th century to teams of two so one rider could race while the other rested, in order to keep the race continually going. Today, the 24-hours-a-day regime has been abandoned, with the Six Day format involving six nights of racing, typically from 6pm to 2am, on indoor tracks (velodromes).