Jasper de Buyst and Marc Hester became a slightly surprising first leaders of the 2015 edition of Copenhagen Six, as they managed to sneak away with a narrow victory in the night's final Madison. Two pairs expected to dominate this year's event: crowd favourites Alex Rasmussen and Michael Morkov and Berlin Six winners Leif Lampater and Marcel Kalz revealed their tactics very early, closely shadowing each other, but such situation should only open up a rivalry for other contanders and guarantee huge excitement in days to come.

One could wonder if in-form Germans would find enough motivation to take the event held near Copenhagen seriously following their victory in front of a home crowd in Berlin, but the way they dominated opening competitions of the Thursday night emphasized their intentions in a sufficient way. Lampater and Kalz took the first Madison, what was followed by their great performance in sprints competition as well as highly predictable triumph in the time trial and set them as deserved leaders before the final long chase.

Early revealed tactics left no doubts that the Germans consider Rasmussen and Morkov as only serious rivals to the Six Days of Copenhagen crown this year, not paying too much attention to moves of two other pairs remaining in contention: de Buyst/Hester and Grasmann/Morkov. Such situation made for a devoid of any excitement last Madison race, as Lampater and Kalz set themselves into a purely defensive mode, cancelling every breakaway attempt made by the Danish favourites, but letting de Buyst and Hester gain one lap.

This way, Thursday night's final rivalry was decided in a close sprint with the young Belgian emerging as the fastest, and additional 20 points were just enough to move them into the leadership with a narrow 2-points advantage over Lampater and Kalz.

Crowd favourites Rasmussen and Morkov are currently third, one lap down on the leaders, as well as last night's revelation Grasmann and Morkov and Austrian pair of Mullar and Graf.

„Super happy with our start, and even more happy with my partner! Thanks Jasper De Buyst - and thanks for the great support in the arena,” Hester wrote via his Facebook account right after Thursday night's rivalry had been concluded. Hard to disagree with his humble judgement, pointing to the powerful Belgian as main reason of their slightly unexpected success.

The Six Days of Copenhagen classification after day one:
1. Jasper de Buyst – Marc Hester  56

2. Leif Lampater – Marcel Kalz  54

at 1 lap

3. Alex Rasmussen – Michael Morkov  38

4. Christian Grassman – Jesper Morkov  30

5. Andreas Muller – Andreas Graf  18

at 6 laps

6. Jake Duehring – Daniel Holloway  21

7. Nick Stopler – Mathias Krigbaum  15

8. Martin Blaha – Vojtech Hacecky  13

9. Denis Rugovac – Martic Hacecky  8

10. Melvin van Zijl – Didier Caspers  8

at 9 laps

11. Simon Bigum – Elias Helleskov Busk  7

at 10 laps

12. Jiri Hochmann – Achim Burkart  4

at 11 laps

13. Nikola Aistrup – Jonas Aaen  14

at 12 laps

14. Manuel Cazzaro – Filippo Fortin  21

15. Sebastian Wotschke – Hans Pirius  10