Rider Interview: An American winning a professional ‘6 Days’ is quite something, but a US team to win the ‘6 Days’ of Moscow is stunning. Ryan Oelkers and Marty Nothstein did just that in 2002. Ed Hood spoke to Ryan about his historic win and his track career.The 2021/22 six day program may be heavily truncated thanks to the pandemic but we thought you might like this piece of race to nowhere, nostalgia from two decades ago. . .Cleveland, Ohio, 1949 and when Charles Bergna and Cecil Yates hoisted their bouquets over their heads little did they know that it would be more than 50 years before another US pairing would do the same thing. It was Bergnas third win in Cleveland, his final career total was five wins; Yates was more prolific with 16 wins but it was the end of the Golden Age for US Six Day riders.It was Moscow in 2002 before the Stars and Stripes would fly for both riders at the end of a Six Day race for 2000 Olympic sprint champion Marty Nothstein and Ryan Oelkers. On the twentieth anniversary of their win we thought it would be good to remember our chat with Ryan, a decade ago, about his historic but largely overlooked win.Masters Madison champsPEZ: Moscow 2002, your first pro Six Day and your first win how did you get the ride?Ryan Oelkers: Marty Nothstein made the transition from Olympic gold medal sprinter to endurance rider and was on the 6-day circuit…
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