Over the stadium sound system Sabrina Carpenter is singing about “Paris” but we’re here in the northern German city of Bremen, a major cultural and economic hub and the country’s 11th largest city because the Bremen Six Day 2025 is now underway and we have a job to do.
We’ve actually been at the track for a couple of days after driving up in the camper van from Düsseldorf where I flew into from Scotland to meet up with Kris.
We’ve spent the time preparing everything for our riders; the trackside cabins and the two rooms (confusingly also referred to as cabins) upstairs that we use as a base when not racing, to relax in, have a cuppa, get ours’ and the riders’ equipment organised, the guys can leave tracksuits and jackets in here, and have a shower and a massage. We also sorted out a fridge in the room for the water, cola, apple juice and protein shakes as well as some comfy sofas.
As we were first of the support teams to arrive here yesterday we got the pick of the trackside cabins. The three cabins facing the crowds are reserved for the top teams so the crowd can see them, and we choose three inner cabins for our guys which don’t have ‘passing traffic’, nicely tucked out the way under the VIP podium.
And now the trackside cabins are as ready as we can make them; these little wooden bunkers, reminiscent of a coal-face operation are now equipped with cushions, pillows, blankets and towels, sports drinks, gels, wine gums, tissues, labelled mugs for each rider for the tea – and honey to go in it, baby wipes, a good stock of bottles of water, cologne and towelling mitts for washing the riders down after a race, lens cleaner for the sunglasses, little buckets with lids for when the riders need to answer the call of nature and don’t have time to leave the track, and on and on goes the list…
Oh, and we’ve setup our tumble dryer to get the tricots (lightweight race jerseys supplied by the organisers) dry during the sessions. The riders get a long sleeved jersey to stott-around in and use for warming-up, and three race jerseys each which they use (and we dry) alternately through the races, before they’re all washed at the end of each day along with shorts, socks, T-shirts and mitts…
Things have changed a lot recently with the event and the infrastructure, certainly since Gary Wiggins here won in 1985; track safety has been tightened significantly; there’s now a safety wall around the inside of the track, in previous years at turns one and two where our cabins are, the riders were racing close to parked bikes and equipment – very dangerous.
Despite being built over just the last few days to fit into the hall, with long-ish straights and tight bends, the track is superb, improved in a number of ways from previous versions; the inside wall now covers the entire infield with only one in/out configuration just after the finish line, and the balustrade is in fact higher than the UCI specifications demand following some terrible crashes (in London, both concerning riders on Hope machines, strangely).
It’s very solid too, thick boards run top-to-bottom and the supporting trusses are now fabricated in steel, replacing the wooden version of previous editions, resulting in a track that rides very fast – so fast in fact that the organisers have placed restrictions on gearing for some events.
We have two and half teams this year, five riders, who all arrive this afternoon and get settled in.
Team #4 consists of our young German Tobias Müller, the National Team Pursuit Champion is only 20 years old and has been snapped up by Intermarché-Wanty’s development team Wanty-Nippo-ReUz this season, after a terrific road season last year which included 3rd place in Paris-Troyes.
He’s partnered with experienced Swiss Points Race Champion Lukas Rüegg, 3rd in the European Championship Team Pursuit, whose palmarès also boasts strong rides on the road such as 2nd overall in Flèche du Sud in ’24.
Our other full team, Team #5 is an all-Czeck affair. Junior European Champion and Junior Worlds bronze medalist in the Elimination Matyáš Koblížek, together with the Elimination and Scratch Race Champion Jan Voneš, who’s also been three times the National Madison and Team Pursuit Champion.
On paper these guys looked to be a threat but Matyáš was a late replacement for Jan’s original partner and a previous rider of ours, Denis Rugovac, who had earlier in the week suffered broken limbs in a bad car crash, whilst Jan was at the race somewhat lacking in preparation having been required recently to, as befits a soldier in the Czech army, spend a couple of months doing soldierly things.
Our other rider is also Czech, Adam Křenek, 7th in the World Championships Elimination last year, he proved once again he can ride a great De’il as we call it in Scotland (local dialect for ‘the Devil takes the hindmost’) when he absolutely storms the first race of the evening, popping quality World Tour riders like previous Bremen winner and Tour de France stage winner Nils Politt and Olympic Omnium Champion Elia Viviani out the race.
So for the first time in this race I get to scuttle round to the presentation on the finish line with Adam’s towel but not quite being into the swing of things yet, I forget to ask him to take his helmet and glasses off for the photos. There’s a winner’s spicy sausage in that sacking bag.
I heard when I got back to the cabin that I’d missed Tobias getting a ‘wee row’ from the German double World and twice European Madison Champion Theo Reinhardt. It’s not Tobias’ first Six Day but ‘every day’s a school day’ and he just shrugs, taking the ‘words of advice’ on board.
As is tradition at Bremen, the 100 lap Chase (or ‘Great Hunt‘ if translated from the programme literally) is held early in the session and it soon becomes obvious the big teams are wanting to assert themselves on the rest of the field – the race is conducted at a furious pace with plenty of attacking and lap gains.
Team #10, the Italian duo of Matteo Donegà, European Points Race silver medallist in 2020, and Michele Scartezzini, 2nd in the 2021 Worlds Madison when riding with Simoni Consonni, lose one lap in the Chase, as does Team #3, the Danish/German pairing of Matias Malmberg and Moritz Augenstein – both riders we’ve looked after in the past.
These two teams seem to be ‘the best of the rest’. Matias suggests that Moritz isn’t on his best form but he looks to be going pretty well to me.
Here, Simoni Consonni, Olympic and World Champion in the Team Pursuit, is riding with Elia Viviani, and whilst Consonni is relaxed and friendly, saying hello and having time for a little chat, Viviani displays his customary seriousness, or is it professionalism?
Unsmiling, he seems to be having the worst time imaginable and – now this might just be me – he hates having a camera lens pointed in his direction; I have lots of images from various events of Viviani scowling, ‘giving me evils’.
Nevertheless, this pair are flying and clearly determined to stay as close to the top of the leaderboard as they can.
Team #9, the German duo of Theo Reinhardt and ‘Big Roge’ (as Ed used to call him), Roger Kluge, three times World Madison Champion and five times European Champion are the ‘capo’s’ here, and they’re going well, they match all the moves from Havik/Politt and Consonni/Viviani.
Silver medalist in the World (2019) and European (2023) Scratch Races, Dutchman Roy Eefting doesn’t look quite as rawboned as his World Tour rivals here but he’s still very quick and partnered with Dutch Omnium Champion Elmar Abma in Team #2, they’ll no doubt do well in the shorter, faster events.
In this Chase though, being conducted as if the entire Six Day depended upon it, they’re losing laps at a fair old rate, ending the race in last place scoring ‘keine punkte‘ – no points, and losing nine laps.
The house DJ, Jürgen Rasper’s non-stop mix of sounds greatly adds to the intense atmosphere; I’m able to catch a bit of Dua Lipa’s “Houdini” in there, as well as the old Six Day soundtrack favourite “Disco Inferno” – but not the original 1976 version by Trammps, this one is by Syzz (thank you Shazam).
Previous Bremen winner Nils Politt is ‘a unit’ right enough; very tall, lean and haughty, almost imperious, he exudes an aura as someone who was second in last season’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, third in the Tour of Flanders and fourth at Paris–Roubaix has every right to.
After 60 minutes of intense action he and partner Yoeri Havik are on top of the leaderboard with 32 points.
Our Czech pal, sprinter Tomáš Babék asks me to hold him up at the start of the ‘Sprinter Lap Record’ and – argh! – I almost drop him when he comes round to me at the start line to be supported. Jings, he’s heavy and the Sketchers trainers I’m wearing have zero grip on this track surface.
Tomáš has held the one-lap record on this track in the past but tells me these days he’s always ‘locked’ into a time just over nine seconds…
He records 9.061 seconds for his effort. It always amazes me how accurate and detailed the self-awareness sprinters have about their condition and form often is.
Next, all the riders are on the track for the Balustrade non-race, fun race, however you want to put it.
These days it’s known as the La-Ola Sprint, no-one seems to know why but maybe there’s a Mexican Wave reference in there? It consists of the string of riders moving round the top of the track and encouraging the audience to join them in a Mexican Wave of sorts, before swooping down to the black line and ‘racing’ for a few laps before someone finishes first.
Most of the guys just ride around on the tops until it’s time to go a bit faster, only a handful of them participating in the ‘wave’ part of the show.
The race is just a bit of fun but as a sign that they are indeed serious, Consonni/Viviani win the dash to the line for what might prove to be an important extra 10 points in the kitty later on.
A chance to reset a little as racing stops for forty minutes whilst the party continues in the track centre…
The ‘Show’ tonight in the arena is apparently ‘music’s hottest delight’ – a disco and house-covers band called “Watch Your Steps“, with decent singers and a tight brass section.
To be fair to them they did a good job of tunes like “Good Times“, “21st September” and “Ain’t Nobody“. It’s loud enough to induce a nosebleed but the folks packed into the track centre love it.
The crowds in our hall to watch the show and the racing are good, the track centre is packed and I’m told the organisers are pleased with the numbers, especially since the other halls in the building are busy too with different acts on in each venue; The Hermes House Band, a club band called Cascada, and of course the perennial Klaus & Klaus, who have been a staple at the Six for years.
There’s also a nightclub and a large set-table restaurant which is offering a “traditional Bremen Six Day” menu of kale, smoked pork, schnitzel with hunter’s sauce, and boiled potatoes. All this and top class bike racing for 60 € per person.
We’re underway again and as I suspected, Team #2 Abma and Eefting take the three lap 500m Time Trial in 26.759 seconds, muy rapido, with our boys Tobias and Lukas a second behind in seventh place.
The DJ’s choice of Dilby’s “Sacred Ground” when our boy Adam is winding the speed up ready for his change to send partner Anders Fynbo on his three laps flat out fits the mood perfectly. The DJs and the commentators here really do have building the tension and keeping the excitement going down to an art.
German Team Pursuiters Benjamin Boos and Bruno Kessler, Team #12, are showing well to the fore, usually in the top six in the races which matter.
Most of the riders seem to relax in the cabins when not racing by sitting/lying scrolling through Instagram or Tik-Tok, then are able to spring into action when the time is right and race full-on. I’m not sure I could ever have done that, my brain and body needing a few minutes to ‘sync up’.
It’s the wee Dernys next, riders with black numbers tonight, first race is the even numbers followed by the odd numbers, so a quarter of the field – six riders – per heat glue themselves to the rear mudguard of the little motos and basically do whatever the Derny drivers have agreed amongst themselves.
In the first heat, Tobias hits the front for five or six laps then gradually loses places only to be eventually taken right out the back by his driver.
It’s the game; the show is the most important aspect of this event and the winner – in this case Simoni Consonni – usually comes hurtling from the back of the race to the front in the last few laps going 10kph faster than everyone else, just to get the crowd cheering as the two commentators in the arena tag-team each other and keep the volume and the excitement at fever pitch.
It’s the same story with the odd black numbers race; our guys Adam and Matyáš are the last two whilst Theo Reinhardt skooshes over the top of them all in the last four laps to take the five points.
I’m next to Tomáš as he warms up on the rollers when a mechanic nearby offers to hold him up for the individual Sprint.
“No thanks, Martin and I have an understanding,” he says as he points to me with his thumb. I guess that means I’m his holder-upper for the next few days, which I’m happy about, of course, but I do consider going out shopping in the morning for grippier-soled footwear.
Half-past midnight and we’re nearly done for the night, just the small matter of a 30 minute Chase (the ‘Small Hunt‘) to go.
Despite Matias’ concerns to us earlier in the evening about his team’s prospects they win the Chase, partner Moritz Augenstein riding strongly to close down any gaps created by the top three teams overall, and only one other team – Donegà/Scartezzini – finish on the same lap.
Team #11’s moustached German, Moritz Malcharek – twice the National Madison Champion – pairs well with Amsterdam-resident American and fellow moustache-bearer Peter Moore to finish the session five laps down, in eighth place.
As evergreen classic Dario G’s ‘Sunchyme’ plays over us, our boys Matyáš and Jan are doing okay, all things considered. They only concede two laps in the Chase to finish the night 10 laps down, but they’re the only team not to have scored any points; there have been no gifts tonight from the ‘Blue Train’, the top teams, intent as they are on setting out their stalls early.
It’s after 02:30am and the day is starting to catch up with me. I’m looking forward to crashing out soon on the camp-bed (with two mattresses!) here in the upstairs cabin, now that the washing is all done, the kit is sorted and hanging up to dry.
Kris tells me it’s really not important to organise the tricots just now but I can’t help myself, it’s the turning of the final page of the first chapter of the Bremen Six Day 2025.
Bis morgen!
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Our beloved friend Ed Hood passed away peacefully in January 2025. After suffering a devastating stroke in February 2023 he spent an extended period in hospital then lived latterly in a care home in Glenrothes, Scotland.
Working as a ‘Runner’ at the Six Days was Ed’s job for many years and his reports from the trackside cabins are legendary; they were witty, insightful, often cheeky, almost diplomatic, and totally unique (he was the only Runner with a camera!) – but they were always entertaining. This story is dedicated to Ed.
