It’s the final day Bremen Six Day 2025, with two sessions today. Our riders are not involved in the morning session which sees the Sprinters racing a Keirin and going for their lap times, whilst it’s a busy session for the Women, with a Derny race, a Points Race, an Elimination and a Madison.
I take a wander down from our upstairs room to see what’s going on.
It’s a Monday morning but this morning session is labelled “Schools Day” which I think means that the schools can bring along the children for free to watch the racing and get entry into the track centre, where one of the best activities seems to be collecting the autographs of everyone they possibly can.
Now it’s 7pm , we’re about to begin the final session of this ‘Six’ Day.
First event of the evening is the 50 lap Points Race for Elite Women and our Czech pal Barbora wins the second sprint, finishing fifth.
The Points Race is won by local rider Franziska Brausse, former Olympic 2020(2021) and World Team Pursuit Champion and World Individual Pursuit Champion in 2022, who together with compatriot and partner Isabel Kämpfert, German Elimination Champion in 2022, are leading the Women’s event.
Before the start of the session, our guys all came to our upstairs rooms to dump some jackets and kit, grab a coffee and prepare for the racing.
Czech former Omnium and Elimination Champion Adam Křenek looks awfully pale, sitting opposite me and giving off pretty low energy levels, he gives me a rueful smile.
Like me a couple of days ago, he’s been up all night vomiting with some form of food poisoning. Unlike me, he can’t take it easy and hide for an hour or two away from the hubbub in peace and quiet, he has a professional Six Day to complete.
The Pro men lineup for their final night of racing, and it’s going to be an interesting evening; there are three teams which really want to win here, they’ve all been building up their points tally or saving themselves in certain events to give themselves the best chance of taking the victory here.
The riders begin with a rolling presentation to the audience, spending a few laps each on the front while the commentators regale everyone with their palmarès highlights and where they’re positioned in the Six.
Then it’s straight into the first race, an Elimination for all riders.
This is an event Adam is very skilled at (remember, he won the first race of the Six, an Elimination, on the first day) and he rides a gutsy race, using positioning and grinta in place of power, to finish an amazing second.
But as the other day, his partner Anders Fynbo was 4th out, so their combined team score put them 6th in the event, for four points added to their overall.
Fynbo is a good rider of course, having been Danish Individual and Team Pursuit Champion a couple of times, but the De’il does seem to be his weak spot.
The sprinters are up next, with their daily attempt at breaking the lap record.
I’m getting better at holding our Czech rider Tomáš Bábek up on the start line, but I didn’t get around to buying new shoes with grippier soles, and I really have to concentrate on not losing my footing while Tomáš jumps his bike to get his pedals into the correct starting position (the guy’s a man-mountain, there’s no way I could lift his rear wheel up like I normally would).
The ladies have an Elimination race, and it doesn’t start well for our cabins – Veronika is second out.
But! Barbora wins with some clever riding, showing a great deal of determination, she’s having a good night and enjoys the wee photo ceremony.
I’m on holding up duties again for Tomáš, this time it’s his Keirin heat, where he finishes second to Robert “Quadzilla” Förstemann.
It’s the 500m Time Trial next. Our guys Tobias and Lukas are in the lead for a while with their time of 27.911, placing them 6th in the event, which seems to be their natural position in most races here and in the Six overall too.
Overall leaders in the Six, Theo Reinhardt and Roger Kluge, aren’t the quickest over three laps, their time of 27.742 placing them 5th just in front of Lukas and Tobias, but more to the point only adding six points to their tally.
Second overall at one lap but with 20 points more than Reinhardt/Kluge, Yoeri Havik and Nils Politt score a 27.073, putting them third and adding 10 points to their score as Tony Christie asks over the PA system if this is “The Way to Amarillo”.
German Team Pursuiters Benjamin Boos and Bruno Kessler use a different changing method and location to every other team to achieve their fourth place in 27.717, Kessler taking his sling on the back straight racing line with a lap to go.
As most nights, Dutch duo Elmar Abma and Roy Eefting squeeze into the top spot, this time with 26.705, a couple of hundredths of a second in front of Simoni Consonni and Elia Viviani.
Veronika Bartoníková rides well to take a solo lap in the Women’s Scratch Race, ahead of Isabel Kämpfert.
Big Tomáš Bábek is definitely retiring after this Six, he tells me. He’s retired a couple of times before, but this time he means it.
To prove his point, he’s had a nice gift for the organisers made up and is going to present it to them after this next ride, when they are doing a wee presentation for him, to thank him for several years of lighting up the Six with his sporting performances and his great personality.
He entrusts me with the gift and asks me to hand it over at the appropriate time.
But first, there’s the small matter of a sprint against young German Kilo Champion Jacob Vogt to be done.
Tomáš does a good job of wooing the crowd with his head-butting and switching antics, but the race is really just for show and he wins easily.
I miss the actual ripping of the jersey to reveal the Superman logo event, I think Tomáš did this on the back straight, but the crowd enjoy it and give him huge cheers. Apparently, this is something Tomáš used to do after each win here, his trademark celebration.
I feel a little vindicated when I hear Tomáš saying to MC Malte Völz when he has slowed down for a chat in-front of the TV cameras, “can I hold on to you, this floor is very slippy“.
Tomáš is presented with a chunk of signed track by event organisers Mario Roggow and Erik Weispfennig, which is a great gesture of appreciation from them, then I get the nod from him and pass over his gift; a sign board with “Thanks Bremen!” and the race logo. Nice.
Second last race for the pro men is a Derny, just for the top six teams in the overall, and in this one both riders in the team get a shot, doing around 40 laps each.
This means our guys Lukas and Tobias are in, with Lukas gong first. I miss holding him up at the start because I’m sorting out bits and bobs with Tomáš, and Lukas gives me a gentle, humourous dig in the ribs later, for failing in my duties.
It’s interesting to see the riders slinging in their partners whilst riding behind the Dernys, but to these guys it’s par for the course and within a couple of laps all the teams have made the switch.
Riding at 60kph for 40 laps takes a bit of effort and a lot of concentration but there’s zero points towards the overall in this event so no-one is stressing or busting a gut, it’s all taken care of quite routinely.
The first trench of riders come off the track looking pretty relaxed.
Matias Malmberg and Moritz Augenstein run out winners of this Derny.
I have a quick chat with newly appointed Italian National Road Team Coach, Olympic Madison Bronze medalist in Sydney in 2000, Marco Villa, no stranger to Six Days himself.
Marco was Italian Track coach for years, helping Elia Viviani to an Omnium Olympic Gold in Rio in ’16, the Team Pursuit squad to Olympic Gold in Tokyo 4(5) years later, and Chiara Consonni and Vittoria Guazzini to Olympic Madison Gold last year in Paris.
He asks after Ed Hood and I have to tell him Ed is in a care home following his terrible stroke a couple of years ago. Marco is saddened to hear this and shares some stories of his dad, who suffered a similar condition.
I miss what happens in the Women’s Madison – too much going on in the cabins with our boys preparing for the big finalé, but Barbora and Veronika do well, finishing 4th and 5th in the Chase, mirroring their final overall placings exactly.
Theo Reinhardt/Roger Kluge are leading the Six, heading into this Chase, the final event. They’re a lap clear of the other teams, and they have 164 points in their bag.
Snapping at their heals (wheels?) is Team #1, Yoeri Havik/Nils Politt, who are one of two teams at one lap down. However, they have worked hard at amassing a good points total, 187, so they’re in prime position for the win should they get onto the same lap as the Germans Reinhardt/Kluge.
The other team one lap down is the Italian duo of Simon Consonni and Elia Viviani, on 185 points.
This chase is going to be hard-fought, it’s clear over the last few days that these three teams all want to win.
15 minutes before the start of the hour long Chase Roger Kluge visits the cabin and chats to the lads.
Unfortunately I don’t get to hear what’s discussed but I wonder if it concerns the five intermediate sprints in this upcoming Chase, all of them worth double points…
The battle is on from the gun, with Teams #1, #6 and #9, the top three, following each other’s moves closely, taking turns to blast lumps out of each other.
It’s clear that this is hurting the Big Teams just as much as the others on the race; the pace is furious.
It’s so hard to keep track of the attacks and moves in the race from trackside.
Midway through the race, Yoeri Havik attacks and despite a huge effort from Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt, he pairs with Nils Politt perfectly to get their lap back in just a couple of minutes, and just like that the lead in the Six has changed!
With 14 minutes to go Elia Viviani eases into the spot in front of me – puncture. There’s zero panic though as his mechanic Gennaro pops over with tools and a rear wheel and has the wheel changed out in no time.
I seem to have a fair amount of photos of Viviani glowering at me, whether it’s of him warming up or strutting around in the track centre. So here’s another one, this time rejoining the race after a wheel change.
I’ll forgive him this one though – there’s not much time to go in the race, in this Six indeed, and he and Consonni need to get a lap back and score no worse then second in the final sprint to have a chance of moving up from third to second overall.
Twice German Madison Champion Moritz Makcharek and his Dutch-based American partner Peter Moore, maintain their mid-pack placing in the race, to finish 7th overall.
Havik/Politt manage second places in three of the sprints to add 18 points to their score, whilst Reinhardt/Kluge win three sprints and bag a second in another, adding 36 points to their tally, but this keeps them in second place overall – by a measly five points.
Simoni Consonni and Elia Viviani bag one sprint and place third in another, to increase their total by 14 points, but without that crucial lap gain, they’re stuck in a safe third place, four laps ahead of Matias Malmberg and Moritz Augenstein.
Malmberg and Augenstein lose another two laps, still in fourth overall but finish at five laps down.
So how did our boys get on?
German youngster Tobias Müller and experienced Swiss Lukas Rüegg finish in 6th place overall, and they’re chuffed with that, rightly so. Both guys are super-classy bike riders and really nice people.
Our Czech lads, Matyáš Koblízek and Jan Voneš lose 39 laps over the four days to bring up the rear of the field.
They performed well considering they were coming into this Six hugely undercooked and did themselves proud.
Our other Czech rider Adam Křenek together with his partner (who we weren’t looking after) Anders Fynbo were 10th at 27 laps. Adam rode strongly throughout, especially today given he was ill all the previous night, he showed a lot of courage.
And that’s a wrap for the Bremen Six Day 2025. It’s been great fun to be a part of. Thanks to Kris for having me along, to our riders for tolerating the odd splash of Eau de Cologne in the face, and to the organisers, particularly Erik Weispfennig for making everything run so well and being so straightforward.
See you next year, I hope, Bremen!
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Whilst Kris and I made our way home to Bonnie Scotland in the camper having taken the very comfy overnight ferry from Hoek van Holland on the Dutch west coast to Harwich in Essex, England, my friend Peter Jacques, who works for VeloTrack building tracks around the globe, sent me some photos of the Bremen track take-down he and the team were working on.
It’s remarkable how such a complicated venue can be dismantled in just a couple of days.
