Six Day Series goes virtual with Olympic and European champions

The Six Day Series will head online next week, with a virtual track cycling tournament that will feature Olympic champions.

Hosted on online training platform Bkool, the Six Day Virtual Series will see six riders compete against each other in four different disciplines: a time trial, scratch race, elimination race and a points race, with scores across each being totted up to crown an overall winner.

Olympic and five-time world champion Elinor Barker is the headline name on the list of competitors, as well as her sister Megan Barker. Zoe and Elynor Bäckstedt are another pair of siblings who will participate, with the roster completed by multiple European champion Neah Evans and Abi Smith.

Starting on Tuesday January 19, there will be four nights of racing, culminating on Friday January 22, and fans will be able to watch live on Six Day's Facebook page.

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"Don't be fooled, just because it is not staged in the real world does not mean the riders are any less competitive," organisers said.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2021 Six Day Berlin scheduled for February was postponed in October last year, shortly after Six Day London was postponed a year, set to now take place towards the end of October later in the year.

"We’ve been working hard on our plans for Six Day London, however given the challenges faced by the entire events industry we don’t feel that Six Day London is possible this year," Six Day said at the time of postponement. "The last thing we want is an unsafe event and after all a Six Day event without packed stands just wouldn’t be the same."

In lieu of real-life events, Six Day has been hosting ride-alongs on Bkool with star names such as Theo Reinhardt, Katie Archibald and Barker.