The u19 riders at the Bremen Six Day began their 45 minutes Madison at 10.00am but we don’t have to be down at the trackside cabins at that time – our boys aren’t on the track until until half twelve for a 30 minute Chase, and an extra hour in bed is very welcome indeed.
When Kris and I do get down to the track after readying the upstairs cabin with fresh tea and coffee, topping up the bottled water and apple juice in the fridge, and collecting all the washed and dried kit, we find we have a couple of new faces around; the ladies have arrived.
We’re joined in the trackside cabins by two Czech elite riders, Barbora Němcová, who has been the Junior Elimination Champion at both European and World level, and Veronika Bartoníková, the Czech Team Pursuit Champion.
They’re not riding here together however; the organisers have paired Barbora with multi-Slovak Champion Alžbeta Bačíková, whilst Veronika teams with Francesca Selva, the former Italian “Vice-Champion” in the Keirin.
First race for the Elite Women in this relatively short session today is a 50 lap Points Race, and Barbora does really well, finished third thanks to a strong final sprint for double points, beaten to the line only by German Points Race Champion Fabienne Jährig.
The win however – with zero points – went to German rider Franziska Brausse, World and Olympic Team Pursuit Champion and World Individual Pursuit Champion, who scarpered off the front halfway through the race on her own to gain a lap on the field.
It’s time for the men to get racing, and the guys warm up with a rolling presentation then go straight into a 30 minute Chase, with two sprints.
Some kids are back in today with yesterday’s free whistles but thankfully it’s just a handful of them and the screetch they make is drowned-out by the hall’s DJ, currently belting out great Madison music like the 1979 classic E,W&F and The Emotions’ “Boogie Wonderland”, segueing seamlessly into modern stuff like “Changes” by PNAU.
Team #10, Italians Matteo Donegà and Michele Scartezzini score 3rd place in both the mid-race sprints and in the final gallop, to finish third in the Chase.
Nils Politt and Yoeri Havik are clearly trying, Politt has a proper pain face on, but after hearing from some of the guys how late he was up partying last night (this morning) that’s perhaps no surprise. They win one of the sprints and finish second in the other, before wining the final sprint at the finish, and wind up second.
But with 20 laps to go, Kris sidles up next to me and whispers in my ear, “better go get the boys’ towels…”
Our German/Swiss guys in Team #4, Tobias Müller and Lukas Rüegg won the first mid-race sprint but didn’t place in the second one, so for a moment I wonder how Kris reckons they can win this, then I understand.
I look up at the track just as Lukas and Tobias launch a strong attack, firing out of the string to go clear on their own.
They look great, with fluid and powerful changes, as they take their lap in just under eight circuits, with no time for any other team to move onto the same lap, and with Havik/Politt and Reinhardt/Kluge controlling the front of the bunch, our boys are awarded the 20 points for the lap gain and so take the win! Hurray!
Kris confesses that he isn’t in fact psychic; Roger Kluge popped by our cabins before the Chase and asked the guys if they had the legs to go for the win? Roger knows Tobias well, they were teammates in the winning Team Pursuit squad last year at the German National Championships.
They said they did, and indeed they did! They had to work for it though, it wasn’t gifted to them, but for the sake of the show, for appearances, it’s better that the flowers (or sausages in this case) are shared amongst different teams.
Talking of shows, it time for Klaus & Klaus, the singing double act to do their thing, and racing is paused.
We have a very interesting visitor to the cabin whilst the show is on and the riders take a break for half an hour; Walter von Lütcken popped in to catch up with Kris.
They’ve known each other a long time and have seen lots of changes in the sport, it’s governance and safety.
Walter is boss of the VeloTrack company which built and maintains the track we’re using here here in Bremen, as well as dozens of other velodromes around the world (Palma-Mallorca, Milton-Canada, Lima-Peru, Derby-England, etc…). He’s about to have a meeting with the Safety Commission of the UCI to discuss all things velodrome safety standards, including the obvious challenges like ballustrade height.
Here in Bremen the ballustrade is 1.4m high, which is actually 500cm higher than the standard still currently specified by the UCI (which also details a metal hand rail atop the vertical wall).
Following England’s Matt Walls and Katy Marchant (and German rider Alessa-Catriona Propster) crashing over the ballustrade at London’s Lee Valley VeloPark the ballustrade height there was increased to 1.4m by Walter’s team.
The lights have dimmed and gone a pink hue, it must be time for the La-Ola Sprint.
Erick Morillo and Reel2Reel are on the PA system telling us “I like to move it”; it’s a great tune for when the riders drop down from the balustrade to the racing line and the pace begins to wind up.
Team #8, consisting of Danish Individual Pursuit and Scratch Race Champion Oskar Winkler and Austrian Raphael Kokas, twice u23 European Madison Champion take the win in a comfortable sprint.
Kokas is an interesting young man, not least because in every single photo I have of him, whichever event he’s racing in, his mouth is closed!
The ladies race an Elimination, with Barbora 7th and Veronika 10th, no photos I’m afraid, I’m concentrating on my next job; holding-up duties for Lukas.
It’s the Derny race for even red numbers. German Team Pursuiter Bruno Kessler goes over the top with two laps to go for the five points, the contest for rest of the points is kept tight, with Lukas ending up 4th.
Next it’s the Derny for odd red numbers, which means I’m holding up our Czech Madison and Team Pursuit Champion, Jan Voneš. Moritz Augenstein wins this one, with the five points towards the overall perhaps meaningful later – he and his partner Matias Malmberg are in fourth place overall in the Six, at two laps down on the top three teams, but they have more points than anyone else.
Maybe this explains why Matias said to me as he was out first in yesterday’s Elimination, ‘if they won’t let me win anything, what’s the point?‘.
500m Time Trial time, and our Czech boys Jan Voneš and Matyáš Koblížek are up early, look good, and stop the clock on 29.540 seconds
The two big Italian Team Pursuiters, Michele Scartezzini and Matteo Donega always look great, smooth and powerful, but perhaps need a kilometre to get up to speed – they are a second slower than our guys.
Our young German, Tobias gives it laldi after being taken up to speed by Lukas, and their 28.358 seconds ends up good enough for 8th place, alas keine punkte.
Surprisingly, ‘Big Roge’ Kluge and Theo Reinhardt are 6th, with a 27.709, only adding four points to their total.
Yoeri Havik and Nils Politt, currently lying second overall, are taking this event seriously and end up second with a fast 27.186, adding 12 points to their overall score.
Also taking the Time Trial in a businesslike manner are the Italian overall leaders (but only by a couple of points), friendly Simone Consonni and the perma-scowling Elia Viviani. They fire around the three laps in 26.925, the only team to get under 27 seconds, and are awarded the 20 points for the win, lifting them above Malmberg/Augenstein in the points tally too.
The sprinters are on now, for the Keirin. I pop my camera beside the officials for a moment while I hold Tomáš Bábek up.
It’s a good, tight finish, with pretty ‘robust’ bike handling on display, and Team Sprint World Champion fifteen years ago, evergreen Robert Förstermann edges our man Tomáš.
Last race of the afternoon is the Kleine Jagd, the hundred lap Madison, with no intermediate sprints. There are the same points on offer for this as for the three lap Time Trial, which seems a bit squiffy to me, but there we are.
I catch “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell and The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” over the hall’s sound system as the battle continues.
American Peter Moore, 4th in the Worlds Points Race last year, had a spell racing on the road with the AG2R Citroën U23 Team a couple of years ago.
He rides well, he’s solid and plucky, but there’s no chance for anyone to get a lap for most of this race, it’s tightly controlled by the top four teams.
Despite the race not being conducted at full gas, our Czechs Jan Voneš and Matyáš Koblížek are the only team to lose more than one lap, finishing the race three laps down on the winners.
It must be hard when you’ve been thrown into a Six with a minute’s notice (Matyáš) or been off the bike and on combat training with the army (Jan) for a couple of months.
Team #9, Reinhardt/Kluge are the only team to take a lap, win the Chase and move into the lead overall in the Six. It’s on!
Tobias’ dad Ulrich visits the cabin as the guys get cleaned up and ready to head back to their hotel, and gets a nice photo with Tobias and Lukas.
It’s great to be finished a bit earlier, the tricots, shorts and socks are all washed and hung up to dry by dinner time, but an early night is too inviting to be able to join Nils and others for some socialising.
