Giant's flying dutchmen start season flying

STAM AND SCHEP MAKE STRONG START TO SEASON

Giant track stars Danny Stam and Peter Schep have kicked off their ‘06-’07 season in fine style, securing silver in the Elite Madison European Championships in Denmark on top of a podium finish in their first race, the Six Days of Maastricht in Holland.
“These are very encouraging results because we hadn’t done so much training as in other seasons - this year the calendar is much longer, so we want to pace ourselves.” a delighted Stam told Giant’s website.
“Plus on top of that, my usual team-mate Robert Slippens is injured, so there’s a lot more for me and Peter to get used to before we form a really solid partnership.”
“We’re on a very steep learning curve, finding each others’ strong and weak points with each race but so far we seem to be working very well together. I’m satisfied.”
Schep and Stam are currently racing the Six Days of Amsterdam in Holland (October 16th - 21st), which Stam says they could well be on target for winning.
“We’re where we want to be after the first night of racing, and that’s close to the top but not right at the top where we will get too much pressure. Tactically that’s ideal in a Six-Day event.”
“If you can get in the medals, you can get the wins as well, so we’re pleased and optimistic about our chances.”
“There’s a lot of attention in the media and support for us from the fans because we’re the local riders, but so far we’re handling it well.”
“Now it’s just a question of hanging in there and waiting for the right moment to come along for us to strike and take over as leaders.”
“There’s always a point in Six Days where the other rivals have a weak moment, if we can get identify it and cut them down to size when we should do, we’ll win.”
Stam reports that his long-standing Giant team-mate, Robert Slippens, who had a major crash in a training race over the summer, is “slowly but steadily recovering.”
“Danny is training regularly now on his road bike, although he isn’t sure when he will be able to return yet - it’s not a fast process when you’ve had such a bad series of injuries and he wants to be sure he’ll be ok.”
Slippens isn’t completely disconnected from the track racing this season, in any case.
“He fired the pistol that signalled the start of the Amsterdam Six-Days.” Stam said. “Having him there was a very emotional occasion for all of us.”
After Amsterdam Stam will go onto the Six Days of Dortmund from October 26th - 31st before returning to partnering Schep in the Six Days of Munich the following week.