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Marty Nothstein and his partner Ryan Oelkers (USA) took the top-spot in the Six Days of Moscow, beating Swiss favourites Franco Marvulli/Alexander Aeschbach by just 10 points. The Belgian team of Frank Corvers/Lorenzo Lapage finished third on 142 points, and all three leading teams ended on the same lap.
This is Nothstein's first victory in a Six Day race, and is in fact the first by an American team since Charlie Bergna and Cecil Yates in January 1949 in Cleveland. A long drought for a country that invented the format!
By Sergey Kurdukov, Russian Eurosport commentator
When the US duo of Marty Nothstein and Ryan Oelkers finally took their first ever top spot on the European Six-days scene, an unavoidable idea crossed my mind - whether anyone deliberately named the competition after the famous American movie best-seller.
The two looked so impressive as though the whole contest was cut out for them. Save, maybe, the very first night or two when they had to get used to rather a long oval by today's standards. Every centimetre of 333.33 m track seemed too long when the feelings of the barrel walls of Gent's banking were still fresh in their minds. It was quite a problem to lap the pack, even for the tried pursuiters like Jozef Zabka and Martin Liska or Franco Marvulli and Alexander Aeschbach.
The Swiss pair, looked the most balanced from the word go. The bets were definitely on them as they were the only mini-squad in the starting list that won in this year's 6-day circuit (Grenoble, in November). And they rode true to their reputation, until that horrible crash of Aeschbach on night 3.
All the guys were on the track to warm up before the first event at the moderate speed of under-40 km/h when that terrifying sound came and I saw Alexander lying next to me on his face (I was working as a co-presenter then so I was supposed to be near the finishing straight). He was unconscious and the position of his body made the medics yell to keep anyone from touching him. They suspected the worst had happened.
He was stretched out and sent to the emergency hospital. Marvulli, lips shaking on his always-ready-to-smile (not this time, believe me) face, went on to race and collect points and even win - all by himself. It was in the middle of the night that the news came that Aeschbach was OK, aside from headache, smashed face and lost teeth. He was to be back the very next day. As soon as we announced that to the audience, the spectators went ecstatic.
Something more on spectators. I remember the days in the mid-80's when it seemed that no less than half of Moscow's population swarmed out on the streets to see stages of the Peace Race. Cycling races were tremendously popular in the Russian capital. A decade later, people on its streets were the same but not the same. Today the Russian cycling federation has to go great lengths to attract people in Krylatskoye velodrome (let's call a spade a spade, the place where it is situated is still thought to be on the outskirts).
This time a huge show programme was organized - 3-4 artists came onto the stage in the middle of the track every night. The gimmick worked by 50 per cent. Rock musicians who performed on the last three nights really drew the crowds, and very picturesque ones at that - black leather, rivets, chains and all.
"When will this damned riding be over?" asked their eyes and sometimes even lips. Yet, as soon as the roaring dernies appeared they grew a bit more intrigued.
At the same time the real fans, not so numerous as in mid-80s but still alive and kicking, anxiously followed every motion of disinfected patched-up and bandaged Aeschbach. First he looked definitely uncomfortable (I want to see a person who wouldn't after having uprooted his bike's front fork and landed face first on the hub of the front wheel).
But on the last day of racing, when we finally saw a true Madison with plenty of lapping (just a matter of getting used to riding on this long track), the Swiss pair looked excellent, both of them. Perhaps to make the things absolutely equal, Marty Nothstein crashed with a bang (a very big man, yeah) tearing his shorts to pieces. So the general classification was decided in the very last event. The quicker sprinter took the upper hand - and Marty is as rocket-quick as he has always been, despite his long road kilometres of the last two seasons.
The 5 Russian riders, all of them Muscovites, all but one, Alexei Chmidt, coached by the same trainer Gleb Groisman, looked very promising. They are quite young, around 20, learning the trade step by step and they are eager to grow into top 6-Days pros. They are setting their sights on track racing which is not so typical for today's Russians, who are more likely to happily sign as workhorses with a 3rd division road squad. Some of their attacks and manoeuvres already look definitely beautiful - a true sign of future track showmen.
Yes, the roof was letting the rainwater in, indeed. Made to let as much daylight as possible it sometimes lets down the organizers, especially when it changes from cold to warm outside. Next time there will surely be no raining through.
When the president of Union Internationale des Velodromes Mr Elmgreen bade farewell he made it clear he won't mind coming back with top trackies next year. Therefore international track cycling is being reborn in Krylatskoye. The nearest rendezvous is planned for the end of may in form of a World Cup round.
Apparently retired king of Olympics Viatcheslav Ekimov made a flying visit to see first couple of days of racing. In the morning he mounted his track bike, joined the training six-day men and rode, and rode, and rode. More than two hours at the average speed of 40-plus. Not bad for recreational riding, is it? Especially if you pedal through the second hour all by yourself.
1 Marty Nothstein (USA)/Ryan Oelkers (USA) 275 pts
2 Franco Marvulli (Swi)/Alexander Aeschbach (Swi) 265
3 Frank Corvers (Bel)/Lorenzo Lapage (Bel) 142
1 lap behind
4 Jozef Zabka (Svk)/Martin Liska (Svk) 201
2 laps behind
5 Gerd Dörich (Ger)/Sergey Kudentsov (Rus) 216
4 laps behind
6 Alexei Chmidt (Rus)/Lars Teutenberg (Ger) 184
7 Mario Vonhof (Ger)/Ivan Terenin (Rus) 140
6 laps behind
8 Sergey Lavrenenko (Kaz)/Sergey Trejakov (Kaz) 109
7 laps behind
9 Anthony Gibb (GBr)/Phil West (GBr) 125
10 Jimmy Hansen (Den)/Morten Christiansen (Den) 80
11 Michail Mikheev (Rus)/Vassilii Injukin (Rus) 66
12 Christian Weber (Swi)/Peter Jörg (Swi) 53
8 laps behind
13 Nicky Vermeersch (Bel)/Iljo Keisse (Bel) 69
14 David Hubschwerlin (Fra)/Benoït Genauzeau (Fra) 41
9 laps behind
15 Lars Thomsen (Den)/Michael S. Larsen (Den) 17
16 Maksim Gurov (Kaz)/Vladimir Uchanskij (Kaz) 9
Results courtesy of the Union Internationale des Velodromes