Six Day Berlin: Home stars Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt seal overall victory in final Madison chase
The battle for the track title came down to the final laps of the event
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The 2019 Six Day Berlin came down to the final laps, as home favourites Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt sealed the overall victory.
With work to do heading into the final 60-minute Madison chase, the German pairing pulled in front of their podium competition and took a lap in the closing stages.
They finish the competition 12 points in arrears to rivals Marc Hester and Jesper Mørkøv, but one lap up on the Danish pair.
Kluge said: “We saved everything we had in the sprints, then went all out in the laps.
“We saw the teams tire and it was good in the end.”
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Reinhardt added: “We both suffered a lot, I did a bit more on the last day but we worked well together, we understood everything in the race and we found the perfect moment to get this amazing feeling.”
There were still five teams in contention heading into the final day, which guaranteed a tough battle for the top.
Defending champion Wim Stoetinga and partner Robbe Ghys lead the standings as proceedings got underway on Tuesday night (January 2).
Andreas Graf and Andreas Müller made it back-to-back Madison victories in the opening race, followed by a Madison TT victory for Kluge and Reinhardt.
Mørkøv and Hester then bagged a 60-lap derny success.
Kluge and Reinhardt topped off the week of racing in the final two laps of the Madison to secure the overall classification.
German sprinter Maximilian Levy gave home crowds even more to celebrate, as he secured his classification by 40 points, ahead of Russians Denis Dmitriev and Shane Perkins.
Levy won the sprint finals, while Perkins took the keirin.
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The victor Levy has now taken 100 podium finishes in the Six Day Series, and taken 51 races in Berlin.
He said: “It’s an awesome feeling, it’s the eighth one, when I first started to race here I never thought I could win it this many times.
“Eight is just incredible.”
Tickets are on sale now at https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/sixdaymanchester
The Six Day Series is heading to Manchester between 22-24 March 2019. See some of the world’s best riders including Olympic and World Champions.
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Alex Ballinger is editor of BikeBiz magazine, the leading publication for the UK cycle industry, and is the former digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter, then as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output, and now as the editor of BikeBiz. Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) Alex covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers. Away from the desk, Alex can be found racing time trials, riding BMX and mountain bikes, or exploring off-road on his gravel bike. He’s also an avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.
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