The Six Days of Bremen is one of those events where track cycling becomes much more than just racing.
In January 2026, I spent four days inside the ÖVB-Arena for the 59th edition of the Six Days of Bremen, with endurance racing, sprint competitions, derny races, women’s events, para-cycling, music and thousands of spectators all sharing the same space, and it was also the last stop of my endurance career.
🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube:
Inside the 59th Six Days of Bremen | Track Cycling
Four days inside the ÖVB-Arena
The first thing that struck me about Bremen was how much happens inside the arena. The track is at the centre of everything, but the event doesn’t stop when one race finishes. Riders move between different competitions, the crowd follows the action from the stands, music and entertainment continue around the track, and the whole arena stays alive throughout the evening.
For someone used to going to a track cycling meeting where you arrive, race and go home, a Six Day feels completely different.
You don’t just go to watch a race. You spend hours there, and you party.
The 2026 edition was the 59th Six Days of Bremen, with the 60th edition already set to take place in January 2027.
The programme brought together both endurance and sprint disciplines, with racing for men and women, derny competitions and para-cycling alongside the main events. And, of course, there was plenty happening away from the track too.
Racing from the inside
I was racing in the women’s endurance programme myself. I had my camera on the bike, so I was able to film some of the racing from inside the track — something that gives a very different perspective compared to watching from the stands.
When you’re racing, you don’t really experience the arena in the same way as the spectators. You’re thinking about the rider in front of you, the gap, the next exchange, the wheels around you. Then you look up and suddenly realise how full the arena is.
Unfortunately, my own racing ended earlier than planned after I crashed during the Scratch. I won’t go into the whole story here, because I already wrote about the crash and what it meant for me in a separate article: My Last Madison Wasn’t the Ending I Imagined
But even though I couldn’t race the rest of the weekend, I stayed around the event and kept filming. And that gave me the chance to experience Bremen from a completely different perspective.
A lot happens between the races
One of the things I like about Six Day events is the amount of time spent around the racing. There are riders warming up on the rollers, mechanics working on bikes, people moving around the arena, presentations, music and, eventually, another race starting before you’ve even had time to process the previous one.
The programme also included sprint events and derny racing, so the pace and style of racing could change completely from one moment to the next. One minute you’re watching an endurance race. A few minutes later, the sprinters are on the track. Then the dernys come out. And suddently it’s time for a concert. That’s part of what makes these events so interesting to watch from the inside.
The racing
The men’s Six Day competition eventually came down to the final evening. Simone Consonni and Michele Scartezzini took the overall victory, winning the final classification ahead of the rest of the field.
On the women’s side, Franziska Brauße and Romy Kasper took the overall victory.
And the sprint competition was won by Alessa-Catriona Pröpster and Robert Förstemann.
What makes a Six Day different?
I think that’s probably the hardest thing to explain if you’ve never been to one. It’s not just the format of the racing. It’s the fact that everything happens together. You have elite athletes racing alongside different disciplines and generations of riders, while the arena is filled with spectators, music and entertainment.
The track is always there in the middle of it all. And because the event takes place over several days, you start to recognise the same riders, mechanics and people around the track. It becomes a small world of its own for a few days.
5
For me, Bremen was also a strange moment of transition. I was still racing endurance, but I already knew I was moving towards something different. The crash simply made the end of that chapter more abrupt than I had expected.
One last look at Bremen
Looking back at the footage now, several months later, I realise how much was happening during those four days. The racing. The noise. The people. The atmosphere inside the arena. And, somewhere in the middle of all of it, the end of my own endurance career.
Not everything went according to plan. But that’s also what makes these videos worth keeping. Sometimes you don’t realise you’re documenting the end of something until much later. And Bremen, for me, became exactly that.
A race weekend, a lot of footage, and one more chapter of track cycling that I can now look back on from a different place.
The 60th Six Days of Bremen will take place in January 2027.
Maybe I’ll be back. Just not necessarily for the same reason.
