43. Bremer 6-Tage-Rennen, Day 1

The 43rd Bremen Sixdays began last night. I will be attending the last four days of the event, together with the venerable Bob Williams. It should be a blast, and I will post updates here, complete with race results, photos, videos, and of course local gossip. The field of riders this year is incredibly strong, so the racing should be very exciting.

The teams:

	1.	Nehlsen: Danny Stam - Franco Marvulli
	2.	Milram: Erik Zabel - Bruno Risi
	3.	swb: Robert Bartko - Iljo Keisse
	4.	TM Traffic Marketing: Guido Fulst - Leif Lampater
	5.	Haake Beck Alster: Andreas Beikirch - Andreas Müller
	6.	Weser Kurier: Marc Hester - Alexander Aeschbach
	7.	Dahme: Christian Grasmann - Christian Lademann
	8.	Astra: Marco Villa - Olaf Pollack
	9.	Radio Bremen: Andreas Kappes - Eric Mohs
	10.	Hotel Vitalis-F. Franz: Robert Bengsch - Christian Bach
	11.	Haake Beck: Stefan Löffler - Matthé Pronk
	12.	Hannover: Michael Arends - Gerd Dörich

Holding out for Bonnie Tyler
The big news yesterday, was that Bonnie Tyler, who was supposed to start the race alongside Alessandro Pettacchi could not make it to Bremen on time for the start of the race because her plane was grounded due to the strong storms we have had around here recently. Instead, Erik Zabel filled in for her, which I believe marks the first time ever that a sixday rider started his own race. When Bonnie finally did make it, she simply started the race again, right before the first points race. You can listen to an audio report of the second start here, just ignore the German commentary. It seems that the German audience was not as familiar with It's a Heartache as Bonnie would have liked.

The race
Although you would not think it from reading the local media (the Bremen Sixdays are best known for the parties), there actually was some racing, too. Danny Stam and Franco Marvulli (Team Nehlsen) won the first night and are going into day two with a 23 point lead, ahead of Team Milram and swb. Of course, at this point everything is wide open, but I do believe the top three (maybe four) teams have been established, as might have been expected. Since I was not there last night, I really don't have anything else to report, so take a look at the results yourself.