Six Days of Stuttgart

• Night 1 - January 21st
• Night 2 - January 22nd
• Night 3 - January 23rd
• Night 4 - January 24th
• Night 5 - January 25th
• Night 6 - January 26th

Preview:

By Tomas Nilsson

The 285 meter track in Stuttgart's Hans Martin Schleyer-Halle gives enough room for 16 pairs in the European indoor season's last six day race, the "Hofbräu 6-tage". The winners from Bremen, Silvio Martinello and Andreas Kappes are once again teamed up. They have two victories together this season, apart from Bremen also Münich in December.

The Swiss "Alpen Express" lost Kurt Betschart in Bremen due to a knee inflammation. He will be replaced here by Italian Andrea Collinelli, a good substitute given the circumstances. As a good pursuiter, he will give Bruno Risi the necessary support when it comes to gaining laps and keeping speed up. Collinelli won the season's opening in Grenoble with Adriano Baffi.

The latter has kept his Bremen partner, Marco Villa for this race as well and they will probably want to improve their second place. Matt Gilmore is once again back with Etienne de Wilde. The pair have improved during the season with a third in Münich as the nest result. De Wilde dominated the Stuttgart races in the early nineties and would probably like to win once more.

Poor Dane Jimmi Madsen is something of the "fifth wheel on the wagon" this season, ranked number one on the velodromes but without a steady partner. With Jakob Piil he was one lap from the rainbow jersey this fall in Berlin. With the title he and Piil would have done the full season together, now Piil put all his effort on the road season as one of the more promising riders in the Memory Card team, and so does Michael Sandstød. Madsen's Stuttgart partner Jens Lehmann is a decent rider and he is reported to prefer longer tracks like the one in Stuttgart. Let's hope for the best for the Dane who might in his last season after not scoring a road contract for the coming season when Acceptcard quit. He rode an excellent race in Bremen with Scott McGrory, but the Australian is passing this race by. McGrory had a hard fall in Bremen, and although he finished the race, he needs to recover a little.

The World Madison Champions, Spaniards Llaneras and Galvez, started the season miserably but have learned the trade by and by, reaching a decent fifth in Bremen only two laps down.

There will also be a sprinter's competition, once again with Jens Fiedler in the star role. The organizers hope to get at least one of the French World Champions to challenge him. For the future hopefuls, there will be an espoirs points race on Saturday night, while the youth and junior riders have their points race on Sunday morning and an elimination Tuesday afternoon.

Starting list:

1 Christian Weber/Alexander Aeschbach (Swi)
2 Etienne DeWilde/Matthew Gilmore (Bel)
3 Adriano Baffi/Marco Villa (Ita)
4 Thorsten Rund/Guido Fulst (Ger)
5 Andreas Beikirch/Lars Teutenberg (Ger)
6 Andreas Kappes (Ger)/Silvio Martinello (Ita)
7 Frank Kowatschitsch/Mario Vonhof (Ger)
8 Gerd Dörich/Erik Weisspfennig (Ger)
9 Bruno Risi (Swi)/Andrea Collinelli (Ita)
10 Patrick Billian/Ralf Liehner (Ger)
11 Juan Llaneras/Isaac Galvez (Spa)
12 Stefan Steinweg (Ger)/Daniel Becke (Ger)
13 Jimmi Madsen (Den)/Jens Lehmann (Ger)
14 Frank Corvers/Lorenzo Lapage (Bel)
15 Peter Jörg (Swi)/Sebastian Siedler (Ger)
16 Danny Stam/Robert Slippens (Ned)