Leif Lampater and Marc Hester held on to their lead in the Copenhagen Six-Day on Monday evening.
The men in black cannot rest on their laurels, however. After the dreaded handicap Madison, they were on the lap as Germans Robert Bartko and Marcel Kalz with only seven points separating the two teams. Three-time winners Alex Rasmussen and Michael Mørkøv are still very much in contention, though, as their 283 points all but guarantee that they will win a bonus lap before the final and decisive Madison on Tuesday night. That would put the Danish team in a very favourable position as it seems doubtful that Lampater/Hester and Bartko/Kalz will be able to obtain a bonus lap. Austrians Andreas Müller and Andreas Graf, who earned enough points yesterday to gain a bonus lap, hold 119 points. All other teams trail by three laps or more.
The German/Danish duo Marcel Barth and Niki Byrgesen won the 75-kilometres handicap Madison that pulled the curtain on the penultimate evening. The handicap Madison started with an avalanche of attacks. At one point 11 teams were in the breakaway while the peloton consisted of barely three teams! Gradually, however, the all-out war fizzled out and became a protracted, predictable and somewhat dull trench warfare. Towards the end of the Madison Mørkøv and Rasmussen twice tried to gain a lap to no avail.
Barth/Byrgesen finished one lap ahead of a group of four teams to take a prestigious and well-deserved win after some tactically smart racing.
Müller and Graf won the team elimination early in the evening while Germans Bartko and Graf continued their trend, won the lap time trial with 12.667 seconds to win the event for the fifth night in succession.
It seems likely that three teams will be in the same lap going into the final Madison tonight with Mørkøv and Rasmussen ahead on points. That should make for an unpredictable final as they will then have to watch out for both Lampater/Hester and Bartko/Kalz who can take turns attacking the Danes.
General classification after day 5:
1 Marc Hester - Leif Lampater 243 points
2 Robert Bartko - Marcel Kalz 236
At 1 lap:
3 Alex Rasmussen - Michael Mørkøv 283
4 Andreas Müller - Andreas Graf 119
At 3 laps:
5 Albert Torres - Vojtech Hacecky 155
At 4 laps:
6 Jesper Mørkøv - Wim Stroetinga 184
At 11 laps:
7 Nick Stöpler - Luke Roberts 80
At 19 laps:
8 Niki Byrgesen - Marcel Barth 114
At 20 laps:
9 Mads Christensen - Tristan Marguet 153
At 21 laps:
10 Guy East - Daniel Holloway 105
At 28 laps:
11 Simon Bigum - Nico Hesslich 105
At 29 laps:
12 Hans Pirius - Sebastian Wotschke 115
13 Melvin Van Zijl - Didier Caspers 54
At 32 laps:
14 Mathias Krigbaum - Vivien Brisse 119
At 36 laps:
15 Martin Hacecky - Achim Burkart 78
Shao Yung CHIANG 40 years | today |
Jorge CASTEL 36 years | today |
Ahnad Fuat FAHMI 31 years | today |
Simone CARRO 24 years | today |
Jay DUTTON 31 years | today |
© CyclingQuotes.com