Michael Morkov and Olympic Omnium Champion Lasse Norman did it: In the final chase they managed to defend their lead against the attacks of their closest rivals to win the Copenhagen Six Days much to the delight of a capacity crowd.
Morkov/Norman began the final chase with an unassailable lead on points and this forced the other contenders, Lampater/Roberts, Marvulli/Morkov and Müller/Graf, on to the offensive. Despite an early attempt by Lampater/Roberts to gain a lap, Morkov/Norman quickly reeled in their most dangerous rivals and 15 minutes into the chase these two pairs gained a lap without Marvulli/Morkov and Müller/Graf being able to respond.
In a somewhat disappointing final chase the home favourites were able to control the action without any really serious threats emanating from the other main contenders for overall victory.
One final effort was made by Lampater/Roberts, though, and they were joined by Müller/Graf but the assault came too late and Morkov/Norman were able to conduct damage control, heavily aided by Marvulli/Morkov, and Lampater/Roberts never gained more than half a lap.
After the lap of honour 4 time winner Michael Morkov said, “All things considered we pretty much had things under control. It was getting rather critical when team number 1 (Lampater/Roberts) went on the attack towards the end but fortunately their attack came too late. I had expected them to pose a more serious threat.”
His joy was matched by that of his little brother, Jesper, who climbed on to the podium for the first time, “I haven’t raced too many six days this season so it’s nice to see a payoff for all the hard work I’ve been doing on my home trainer and on the roads in Italy and Spain. For Franco and I this is a dream result.”
Overall Standings:
1 Michael Morkov - Lasse Norman (Denmark) 382
2 Luke Roberts (Australia) - Leif Lampater (Germany) 304
At 1 lap
3 Jesper Morkov (Denmark) - Franco Marvulli (Switzerland) 322
4 Andreas Müller - Andreas Graf (Austria) 195
At 3 laps
5 Marcel Kalz - Robert Bengsch (Germany) 268
At 4 laps
6 Vojtech Hacecky - Jiri Hochmann (Czech Republic) 141
At 5 laps
7 Marc Hester (Denmark) - Robert Bartko (Germany) 271
8 Sebastian Lander (Denmark) - Nick Stöpler (Netherlands) 238
At 8 laps
9 Mads Christensen (Denmark) - Marcel Barth (Germany) 163
At 24 laps
10 Björn Schröder (Germany) - Roy Pieters (Netherlands) 152
11 Tino Thömel (Germany) - Nolan Hoffman (South Africa) 150
At 26 laps
12 Simon Bigum (Denmark) - Alexander Aeschbach (Switzerland) 91
At 48 laps
13 Zachary Kovalcik - Guy East (USA) 124
DNF
Milan Kadlec (Czech Republic) - Benjamin Edmüller (Germany) 68
Shinpei FUKUDA 37 years | today |
Simone CARRO 24 years | today |
Igor BOEV 35 years | today |
Christophe PREMONT 35 years | today |
Miriam ROMEI 29 years | today |
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