Six Day Berlin: Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt storm into overall lead on opening night
The Madison world champions are in control in the latest race in the series

Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt lead the general classification at Six Day Berlin (Picture: Six Day Berlin)

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World Madison champions Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt have taken control after the opening night of the Six Day Berlin.
The track spectacular opened on Thursday night (January 24) in the German capital, with the home favourites starting strong.
Reinhardt outlasted his rivals to an early derny race success before the pair later scooped a team elimination victory, putting them on 90 points at the end of the first night.
Danish pairing Marc Hester and Jesper Mørkøv are chasing behind on 83 points, with another German team, Henning Bomel and Kersten Thiele, in third on 71.
>>> Nine reasons to try track cycling this winter
Reinhardt said: “We are not the fastest at the moment so we have to attack and we went a little bit early [in the final Madison sprint], but I think we saw in ourselves that we are strong.
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“For us, it was a good evening, we are in the lead and it’s pretty good for us.
“The other guys are chasing, but for us it’s the same.
“At the moment it’s good that we lead but we’ll see tomorrow how it goes on.
In the women’s contest, the Danes proved themselves strongest on the first night as Trine Schmidt leads overall after taking an omnium victory.
Double European champion in 2017 Schmidt took glory in both the scratch and elimination races as she topped the table with 127 omnium points.
Team-mate and fellow Dane Julie Leth is 16 points adrift in the omnium, with French rider Pascale Jeuland is third on 100 points.
And among the sprinters, Max Levy starts the competition as favourite having won seven consecutive Six Day Berlin titles.
>>> How to train like a sprinter: essential tips to improve your top-end speed
Levy was quickest in the 250m flying time trial and he powered past Russian Denis Dmitriev in the head-to-head sprints.
Dmitriev’s compatriot Nikita Shurshin took the victory in the opening keirin.
Levy leads the sprinters classification with 50 points, Shurshin is second on 42 while Dmitriev is just one point behind in third.
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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