Berlin 6 Day

Think the Oktoberfest meets an 80’s German Rock Festival with jungle whistle crew crowd in a velodrome and you are somewhere near. I chanced across this event last year after visiting the Keirin Berlin track bike shop. After watching a 10 minute video collage of the 2006 edition of the 6 day event on their website I knew I had to check this event out. This year’s event was the perfect introduction - 100th anniversary and Eric Zabel’s last professional race.

Gwydion, Michal and myself had tickets for the ‘Golden Night’ events on Saturday, starting 7pm through to 1:30am, and the ‘Family Day’ on Sunday. The velodrome building is enourmous, housing not only the track but an Olympic size swimming pool. Inside was a labryinth of beer stalls, food stalls and bike sales, including the tempting track bikes of Cicli Berlinetta.

There was also a Peace Race stand in the Velodrome selling memorabilia and books about the race. I started leafing through one of the books, looking at pictures of the 1950's and 1960's and the chap behind the counter asked my nationality. After some amusing pigeon german and gesturing I explained my connection to the race. The chap turned out to be Horst Schafer, proprietor of the Peace Race Museum in Magdeburg. He's invited me over to see the Museum next time I'm in Berlin where I'm planning on donating some of my father's Peace Race medals.

I thought the atmosphere in Manchester was electric, but here it was on another level. Everyone seemed to be issued with yellow whistles which were blown at every oppourtunity, in time to the music or when a rider put in an attack. Another difference to the Manchester velodrome was that the public were allowed in the centre of the track, the longer circuit allowing for more room in the middle. This space was filled with more bars and a VIP area, complete with cheer leaders. We spent the whole 2 days in this area only using our seats for a couple of hours... it was heaven, beer, track bikes and cheer leaders.

Some of the performances were amazing, seeing a 3 minute 3 man track stand face off in the mens sprint final and Zabel and Bartko winning the Madison. I can't recommend a trip to a 6 day enough, Gent is supposed to be another event renowned for its party like atmosphere. In the mean time we're now looking forward to biggest event since the Olympics at the World Championships in Poland. We'll be seeing the events on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th March. Only down side I can see is that no booze is allowed in the Velodrome...

Berlin 6 Day Site
Saturday Photos
Sunday Photos