Bremen Six Day 2012 – Day Five

We had Frank Sinatra for the sprint series last night during the Bremen Six Day 2012, never a bad thing. Bed was just before midnight and I didn’t get up until 09:00 – just braw.

I just about got all of the words and pictures up to date.

It was the usual 20:00-ish kick off; rolling presentation, minor race then into the first chase – it wasn’t a ‘mega.’

The protocol for a minor chase is that we don’t have to hand up drinks and usually the guys don’t use the wash basins we provide for them to freshen up after the race.

At the end of the race the standings were unaffected and nobody was too stressed.

The sprinters fill in the gaps – however, one of them would have been nursing a monumental bad head after a vodka and cocktails session in the hotel.

Our man on the inside – Pete Jacques – was one of the stretcher bearers; but you’ll get no name from us.

Derny time, there are four races – two heats and two finals, I’m sure someone knows how it works.

And there’s the ‘Laola’ sprint – ‘balustrade’ they call it anywhere else.

This involves the field riding in a string around the top of the track, hands off, ‘superman’ style, sweeping up and down before sprinting it out.

The fans like it, allegedly.

The big chase came in waves, calm then swirling tropical storms.

Franco and Kalz are the main protagonists, Bartko and Schep have to play a reactive game.

Kalz isn’t a name I’m familiar with and when I saw he was paired with Franco I had it in my mind ‘no podium for Marvellous.’

But Franco actually asked for Kalz, he’s seen the potential in the big man from Berlin and has been working on his morale.

Kalz is a regular at our cabin – spending a lot of time talking tactics with Franco.

The pair have gelled well – I always reckon that the time trials tell you all you most of what you need to know about the top teams’ form.

Franco and Kalz have dominated them and there’s no doubting their strength in the chase.

They lead going in the last night on the zero lap with 266 points then Schep/Bartko 0/257 and Lampater/Keisse 0/249 with Hester/Muller at one lap and 204 – it’ll be tough for them to storm the podium.

We had no late Derny so we got up to the cabin early – but to no avail, Franco arrived with half a German TV network, for an interview.

Still, 03:00 am isn’t that late – Pete is just finding his second wind at that time.

Ciao, ciao.

Bremen Six Day - Results from Day Five