Berlin Six Day, 23-28 January 2003
Paul Churchill gives us a Brits Eye View of the racing on Saturday and Sunday

Chris Newton strings them out and meets the fans (top).   Bruno Risi � Kurt Betschart (SUI), Craig McLean celebrates win in keiran standstills!

Arriving at the velodrome at 9.30 on Saturday night was a shock -- over 10,000 people clapping, whistling and dancing, is not the sort of thing someone from Britain expects to see at a cycle race! Many people at the velodrome were obviously not cycling fans but this didn't dampen their enthusiasm for the sporting entertainment, with great appreciation shown to all the competitors and a little bit extra for the German riders!

Saturday night really had a night club atmosphere with plenty of beer, cocktails, cigars and dancing in the track centre to live music from "Frank Zander" who is as famous in Germany as Showaddywaddy are in Britain! The riders competed 'til after 3am, so I'm not sure how many hours sleep they had before having to get back to the track centre at noon on Sunday for the team presentation on "Family day", which as it's name suggests was more kids-oriented with what can only be described as a "clown-rock" band providing the music. There were some espoirs and youth racing with the kids providing some gutsy performances in their "devil" including a spectacular five-rider tumble which led to one lad being stretchered off.

Imagine British kids getting to ride on the same program as the pros in front of a full house of thousands of cheering fans......it might happen!

British racers
World Points champion from Great Britain Chris Newton, has clearly come a long way since his recent first six-day experience, and although he appears to lack the explosive power and tactical nous being shown here by long time six day riders like Bruno Risi and Silvio Martinello, Chris is quite clearly one of the strongest riders on the track in the 30 and 45 minute madison races. His pairing with "old master" Adriano Baffi, now in his fortieth year, is benefitting Newton. They ride well together and Baffi appears to be gladly passing on the knowledge gained from years of experience, shown in the fact that at the halfway point after three days on Saturday night they were up amongst the leaders only three laps back.

In the first of two madisons on Sunday, Newton and Baffi rode well to get a lap back, bringing themselves to within two laps of the leaders. However luck was against them in the second Madison, after being the sole leaders early on in the race Chris was later nudged off the track by another rider, having lost 50 metres on the bunch Chris and Adriano were forced to chase to get back to the bunch during the closing laps rather than launch the attack needed to get the one lap back to the leaders, and so they finishing back at three laps in the overall standings.

During the warm down laps Chris seemed peeved at this unfortunate course of events but was reassured with a hand on the shoulder and some wise words from Baffi. Baffi and Newton did win the team Derny race with Chris holding position during the first 20 of 40 laps before Baffi took over, biding his time and riding a slightly higher gear than the other riders, before launching a perfectly timed sprint to take the honours and receive flowers from his daughter!

SPRINT MASTER
An incredibly relaxed looking Scottish hero Craig Mclean (World Team Sprint champion) seems to be enjoying riding at Berlin, taking everything in his stride and matching the world class competition and the popular German sprinters. Craig took a fine Keirin win on Sunday, having being bumped back from his 3rd spot to second from last he wisely took the wheel of Laurent Gan�, following Gan�'s attack he powered over the top to blast past the Frenchman and Jens Fiedler on the line.

Sprinters and Stehers
The sprinters competition is one of the crowd favourites here with some great exhibitions of power, skill and also showmanship! The big men doing their best to delay the program with regular track stands, eight minutes in the all-German final on Saturday night between Soren Lausberg, Rene Wulff and Jens Fiedler. A two lap sprint followed with Lausberg clinching it from Fiedler, the celebrations from Wolff back in third place suggesting he and Lausberg were deliberately working together against Fiedler.

And then there was the huge, gleaming chrome and white BMW motorbikes with standing riders in white leathers being chased by cyclists at 40mph on a 250 metre track is an incredible sight! A real white-knucle ride for the spectators and there was a real show of confidence from local hero Carsten Podlesch on Saturday night, punching the air in victory with 2 laps to go and while 20metres back in second place before coming over the top to win by inches.

With music, dancing, loads of cheap, good quality German food, sparkling new velodrome, a separate disco, stands and displays, cheap bike kit and of course great cycling and Beer! The Berlin six is well worth a visit. With our "Buzz" flights from Stansted at only 60 quid return (inc taxes), the special weekend rates offered by our "business" hotel and all public transport included in the ticket to the racing, a trip to the Berlin six is easily comparible in price to going to Ghent, so we were surprised not to see or hear any other British fans.

One tip though, if you want good seats at the velodrome book well in advance as they do sell-out and unlike Ghent you may not be able buy tickets on the day, both sessions we saw had sold out when we arrived.

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� British Cycling 2002/2003