Being already on fire on Friday evening, the Danish favourites Alex Rasmussen and Michael Morkov continued applying pressure on their biggest rivals in a showcase of strength on Saturday night, driving an audience in the Ballerup Super Arena at a brink of ecstasy. Courtesy of their impressively aggressive attitude presented in both Madison races, the coveted pair no. 7 took over the leadership in Six Days of Copenhagen, while wisely riding Germans Lampater and Kalz are currently second, one lap down. The overnight leaders de Buyst and Hester dropped down to third place.
The Saturday evening traditianally kicked-off with sprints competition and the elimination race, but while the former served main title contenders as a warm-up, best pairs of the 2015 Six Days of Copenhagen certainly meant business in the latter, not letting a chance to gain some valuable points to pass them by. Top three combinations decided a victory between themselves, with Michael Morkov outsprinting Jasper de Buyst on the final stretch.
The first Madison of the evening started very quietly, but aggressiveness suddenly exploded with about 30 minutes to go, with breakaway attempts coming from every side of the track. Even though due to countless attacks the situation has been changing very dynamically, there were no doubts that the Danish favourites had the upper hand and controlled the situation, eventually winning the exciting race with their last daring attack and moved themselves into the lead.
Such a dominant performances from Rasmussen and Morkov turned on the heat in the Ballerup Super Arena, both figuratively and literally, as an extatic atmosphere encouraged all riders to give something extra, while a high temparature inside the velodrome made for a very fast racing. In such conditions, the track record has been beaten twice that evening – for the first time by the Danish pair no. 7, to be even more impressively bettered in an impressive effort of de Buyst, riding in front of Hester in the team pursuit. Obviously, the Belgian-Danish pair triumphed in that competition, further strengthening their lead in points.
Derny races and time trial were taken by usual suspects, Nick Stopler, Michael Morkov and Marcel Kalz respectively, but slightly less dynamic final long chase was yet another prove of a Danish domination on Saturday night. Rasmussen and Morkov applied even more pressure on their rivals, who visibly lacked strength to find any sufficient response. Christian Grasmann and Jesper Morkov won the 30-minutes long Madison ahead of de Buyst/Hester and Lampater/Kalz, but the pair no. 7 confirmed their leadership in the general classification.
There will be little time to recover following Saturday's impressive efforts as racing resumes on Sunday afternoon, but both Germans and Belgian-Danish pair will have to make the best of it, should they still dream about beating powerful Rasmussen and Morkov in Copenhagen this year.
The Six Days of Copenhagen classification after day three:
1. Alex Rasmussen – Michael Morkov 225
at 1 lap
2. Leif Lampater – Marcel Kalz 176
at 2 laps
3. Jasper de Buyst – Marc Hester 231
4. Christian Grassman – Jesper Morkov 139
at 3 laps
5. Andreas Muller – Andreas Graf 87
at 17 laps
6. Nick Stopler – Mathias Krigbaum 77
at 20 laps
7. Denis Rugovac – Martic Hacecky 64
8. Martin Blaha – Vojtech Hacecky 41
9. Melvin van Zijl – Didier Caspers 37
at 21 laps
10. Jake Duehring – Daniel Holloway 61
at 27 laps
11. Simon Bigum – Elias Helleskov Busk 70
12. Jiri Hochmann – Achim Burkart 15
at 28 laps
13. Nikola Aistrup – Jonas Aaen 70
at 30 laps
14. Sebastian Wotschke – Hans Pirius 45
at 32 laps
15. Manuel Cazzaro – Filippo Fortin 69
Thomas JOLY 29 years | today |
Anthony SAUX 33 years | today |
André VITAL 42 years | today |
Ryoma WATANABE 23 years | today |
Simone CARRO 24 years | today |
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