Hannah Walker Blog: Sixdays Bremen
	January 19th 2015 by Hannah Walker           For the fourth year in a row I was invited back to race at the 51st Bremen 6days in Germany, the fourth time they've held a women's event. With the first year only being a one-day race along side the men's 6days. It proved to be such a success with the riders, organisers and crowds that it is now two days of racing in an omnium format. Our racing is held on Saturday and Sunday, allowing 'kids day' or 'family day' to spectate at a reasonable hour and the evening racing to be the typical entertainment for adults with music, beer, fast racing and famous German live acts such as Mickie Krause. For those who don't understand what a 6 day is, it is simply six days of racing for men but at night time, usually starting at 8pm and during the daytime on weekends finishing in the early hours of the morning. Typically a European tradition, other 6 day events are held in Gent, Berlin, Copenhagen, Zurich and Rotterdam, all on small tracks. For example Bremen is 166m opposed to Olympic size velodromes of 250m. It's a Madison, whoever collects the most points after six days and hasn't lost any laps - Wins! Races include a standard Madison, Madison elimination, derny racing and Madison time trial plus more. You get the gist though, basically all races are themed around the Madison. My personal performance was good, it could have been better because my fitness was there just my ducking and diving in the finishes wasn't up to scratch (no pun intended). It's been almost four months since I last raced, maybe I felt a little rusty in the mind! The second day was better for me I almost gained a lap in the points race on my own before a herd of riders reeled me in with 5m to the finishing line! At least I got the 5 points, it would have been a little soul destroying not to gain anything from my efforts. This was a positive for me to take away as it’s the first time I've ever been close to gaining a lap in the points race! Also I was ninth in the UCI Class1 event scratch race on a photo finish for 4th-9th place! Every race you do you always have something to take away from it, work out your mistakes, what you can do better next time but also realise the positives you achieved. Something I need to work on is my self belief, you'll never know what will happen in a race unless you try, as eventually your attacks to take a lap will pay off, and even when you think you're tired, you always have something else extra inside you if you want to win! Overall in the omnium I was ninth of 18, with the podium being rounded out by Kelly Markus from the Netherlands, Alzbeta Pavlendova of Slovakia and my good friend Julie Leth of Denmark. With it being my fourth time racing in Bremen I have my own fan club, a group of Germans and a couple of Swiss guys, who make me banners with my name on it and always have the British flag out! It's great to hear your name in races abroad, with these people being complete strangers three years ago they have now become very good friends of mine! Cycling is ace! A huge thank you to the organisers, the crowds and the girls who made it good racing! See you in 2016 Bremen! Hannah Walker You can follow Hannah on twitter @spannawalker Overall Women's Results 1 Markus, Kelly 20 2 Pavlendová, Alžbeta 21 3 Leth, Julie 26 4 Klein, Lisa 31 5 Ruzikova, Martina 46 6 Meyvisch, Molly 53 7 van Hoek, Lotte 54 8 Eberhardt, Verena 55 9 Walker, Hannah 66 10 Bubner, Janine 70 11 Seif, Isabell 78 12 Kuntz, Louisa 95 13 Hulzar, Korina 98 14 Riffel, Christa 99 15 Winkelblech, Monique 106 16 Hingst, Tamika 112 17 Everts, Laura 128