The 39th Munich Six Days got underway in the Olympiapark velodrome on Thursday night at 9PM (CET), after the starting gun was fired by German actress Jutta Spiedel. And it was a very good beginning for Australians, as Scott McGrory and Matt Gilmore immediately stormed into the overall leadership.

Actually they gained it in the very final part of the night session, as they moved ahead of another Australian, Stuart O'Grady's, McGrory's partner last week in Dortmund, and his current team-mate, Italian veteran (and defending champion of the Munich Six), Silvio Martinello, who had taken the lead in its earlier part.

Switzerland's Risi and Betschart are in third place, 10 points behind the leaders; but it will not be easy task for the "Alpenexpress" to finally succeed in setting the new record of six-day wins. It won't be easy for Germany's Kappes and Beikirch to repeat the victory they got in the Westfalenhalle a few days ago either: the "two Andreas" are trailing in fourth place after the opening night, 13 points down on Gilmore and McGrory. As for Britain's Brad Wiggins and American Marty Nothstein, they got 35 points, but lost two laps to the top-placed teams and are currently sitting in eighth place overall.

Munich Six Days - Overall Standings after Night One:

1. Scott McGrory (AUS) - Matthew Gilmore (BEL) - 54 points

2. Stuart O'Grady (AUS) - Silvio Martinello (ITA) - 51 points

3. Bruno Risi - Kurt Betschart (SWI) - 44 points

4. Andreas Kappes - Andreas Beikirch (GER) - 41 points

5. Robert Slippens - Danny Stam (HOL) - 34 points

6. Jimmy Madsen (DEN) - Thorsten Rund (GER) - 27 points

at 1 lap

7. Andreas Müller - Guido Fulst (GER) - 16 points

at 2 laps

8. Bradley Wiggins (GBR) - Marty Nothstein (USA) - 35 points

9. Adriano Baffi - Marco Villa (ITA) - 19 points

at 3 laps

10. Jens Lehmann - Ronnie Laucke (GER) - 9 points

at 5 laps

11. Lars Teutenberg - Frank Kowatschitsch (GER) - 13 points

12. Stefan Steinweg - Erik Weispfennig (GER) - 9 points

13. Gerd Dörich - Mario Vonhof (GER) - 5 points

at 6 laps

14. Lorenzo Lapage (BEL) - Christian Lademann (GER) - 5 points

U23 Franziskaner Rad Open: Standings after Night 1 (Top 8 Places):

1. Iljo Keisse – Jo Van den Abeele (BEL) - 24 points

2. Leif Lamparter – Sebastian Frey (GER) - 22 points

3. Stefan Löffler – Daniel Palici (GER) - 19 points

4. Alexei Schmidt – Mikail Mikheev (RUS) - 19 points

5. Ralph Zimmermann – Oliver Mattmann (SWI) - 12 points

6. Jakob Dyrgaard – Alex Rasmussen (DEN) - 7 points

7. Armin Krahl – Christian König (GER) - 7 points

8. Aurei Siegel – Felix Wolff (GER) - 5 points