Day Four
‘Easy like Sunday morning,’ said the Commodores – you got that one wrong guys. The racing on Night Four at the Bremen Six Day 2020 finished at 02:00 am with the guys back on those nice new boards at 12:35.
In the meantime, the pee pails have to be emptied and disinfected; the washing done for four guys – each with shorts, three under vests, three jerseys, socks and mitts – then dried, folded and laid out; the drinks have to be mixed and readied; race food has to be checked and replenished – and some sleep and breakfast has to be fitted in somewhere.
Despite the fact that the racing is never going to be ‘a bloc’ on a Sunday afternoon, the crowd was decent; it beats taking the dog for a walk or washing the car.
The ‘show’ on Sunday was singer, Markus Becker whose presence was perhaps responsible for the good turn-out, albeit he has to be filed under, ‘only in Germany.’
Nearest equivalent in the UK would be ‘The Wurzels’…
And there was a press presence in the cabins with things being a little quieter; race fave Kenny De Ketele the man most wanted to hear from.
Despite it not being the deadliest afternoon of racing ever, the race lead changed hands with Dutch/Swiss duo Stroetinga and Selenati now on top of the standings.
With a 5:00 pm finish today and 7:00 pm kick off on Monday it’s ‘happy days’ for us.
* * *
Bremen Six Day 2020 – Day Five
Don’t these people have homes – or jobs?
It’s 01:45 am on a Tuesday and they’re partying HARD, but this IS, ‘The Party Six’ for sure.
The stands may have been quiet for the rolling presentation but within an hour or two the track centre was jumping – with many still dancing and drinking in the other halls as we stumbled to the camper approaching 02:00 am Tuesday.
I was fresh as a daisy on Monday morning though, a 12 hour sleep does that for you.
We won’t be winning the flying 200 metres today, Moritz’s partner Oliver is out sick so our boy goes with little Felix Happke who was with Felix English; but the Irishman is out with “cuts where it’s least convenient”.
Andreas Graf took the devil which the rolling presentation leads into and then it was time for the first chase.
Moreno De Pauw and Leon Rohde won said first chase, a non too savage affair.
Flying lap time and this is where the plot thickens…
Our Czech fast man, big Tomas Babek has been quickest all week, he starts last each night as the Number One seed.
He’s been just shy of the lap record each night, even though he feels that he’s been quicker than the timing alleges.
Tonight he was really ‘up’ for it.
Local favourite Robert Förstemaan rode an 8.688 to take the lap record just before Tomas went.
And then Tomas stormed round to … ‘a fault with the timing’ and no time on the board.
However, Tomas had his manager run the videos of Forstemaan’s and his own rides through a video programme called ‘Dartfish’ – which all the national federations including GB use for ride analysis – Förstemaan’s time matched exactly what was claimed; 8.688 seconds.
Tomas’s time?
8.44 seconds – we’ll say no more, except that there was 500 euros on offer for the record with those going to the German.
Our boy Moritz won the first Derny.
With the second one going to Kneisky who came late over the top of Politt.
With Augenstein and Frederiksen out of the way, the way was clear for a new winner in the 500 metre TT with Wim Stroetinga and Nico Selenati grabbing the opportunity and taking the win with a track record.
With this being Moreno De Pauw’s last appearance in Bremen there was a ‘farewell’ ceremony to mark the occasion.
The usual ‘tunnel’ of spinning wheels…
He was given a piece of the track signed by all the riders as a memento – handy for lighting the fire on those dark Belgian mornings.