Last night the German/Belgian constellation of Christian Grasmann and Kenny de Ketele won the 52nd edition of the Bremen Six Days one lap ahead of Jesper Mørkøv/Morgan Kneisky and last year’s winners Alex Rasmussen and Marcel Kalz. Going into the final Madison all three teams could realistically hope for a win while Mora/Havik could hope to finish on the podium.

In the latter half of the Madison the experience of Grasmann and the overwhelming power of Kenny de Ketele, who attacked incessantly, turned the tide in favour of the team that went into the final evening holding the lead.

Both Mørkøv/Kneisky and Rasmussen/Kalz had improved their chances by gaining a bonus lap in the disciplines preceding the decisive Madison which may have taken too much power out of them as they were unable to respond when de Ketele launched another of his offensives midway through the final Madison. From then on Grasmann and the Belgian had little trouble seeing off the challenges from Mørkøv and Kneisky while Rasmussen and Kalz dropped two laps.

For Christian Grasmann it was his first ever win in a Six Days race, while Kenny de Ketele took his 9th victory. After the race Grasmann grabbed the microphone and told the audience, “I’m very proud and happy that we made it. The adrenaline was pumping through my veins and Kenny is a top class rider, truly a winner.” A fully packed audience almost raised the roof.

General classification after day 6:

1 Christian Grasmann (Germany) - Kenny de Ketele (Belgium) 259

At 1 lap

2 Jesper Mørkøv (Denmark) - Morgan Kneisky (France) 322

At 2 laps

3 Alex Rasmussen (Denmark) - Marcel Kalz (Germany) 345

4 Sebastian Mora (Spain) - Yoeri Havik (Holland) 300

At 17 laps

5 Wim Stroetinga (Holland) - Andreas Müller (Austria) 129

At 27 laps

6 Nico Heßlich (Germany) - David Muntaner (Spain) 248

At 30 laps

7 Achim Burkart (Germany) - Melvin van Zijl (Holland) 138

At 33 laps

8 Sebastian Wotschke (Germany) - Jan Freuler (Switzerland) 163

At 35 laps

9 Hans Pirius (Germany) - Andreas Graf (Austria) 94

At 43 laps

10 Martin Blaha - Jan Kraus (Czech Republic) 64

At 44 laps

11 Moreno de Pauw (Belgium) - Lucas Liß (Germany) 164

At 60 laps

12 Marcel Barth (Germany) - Alois Kankovsky (Czech Republic) 52