It turns again. The starting signal for the 103rd edition of the Berlin Six-Day Race will be given in the Berlin Velodrom tomorrow. The two German football legends Franz Beckenbauer and Uwe Seeler will send the first-class field of riders onto the wooden oval of the velodrome and open the oldest Sixdays in the world.
About a month before the World Championships in Cali, Colombia – February 26th to March 2nd, 2014 – the sporting director and Berlin state trainer for cycling, Dieter Stein, is giving the provisional World Championship participants, such as the entire German track four, the chance for one last big one shape test.
"Last year Morgan Kneisky and Vivien Brissé, among others, competed here in Berlin and used the races to prepare for the World Championships - and they did so very successfully, because they became world champions in Madison in Minsk.", according to Stein.
World Championship participants are at the start in almost every discipline. The list of favorites for precious metal is headed by the German sprint stars around Maximilian Levy, René Enders and the Berlin lap record holder Robert Förstemann, who compete in exciting duels in the Wolfram Champions Sprint international will deliver.
One of the top stars of the 32-man squad of six-day riders is the current world champion Vivien Brissé from France, who, however, has to do without his world championship partner Morgan Kneisky, who is represented by Christian Grasmann from Munich. The group of favorites also includes the Spaniards David Muntaner and Albert Torres, who won the silver medal at the last Track World Championships, as well as the Belgian Kenny de Ketele, who will start with the Austrian by choice Andreas Müller. The audience's favorite Franco Marvulli from Switzerland will also start his farewell tour in Berlin for the last time. His partner is Australian Olympic champion Luke Roberts.
A look at the Madison start list also promises excitement from a national perspective. A total of 13 track aces from Germany do their laps in the velodrome in the fight for overall victory in the Madison. At the head of the German starters is Olympic champion and crowd favorite Robert Bartko, who forms a team of two together with the young Theo Reinhardt from Berlin.