6 Days of Nouméa - Final Results: Local rider Jean-Michel Tessier and 40-year-old italian Adriano Baffi has won the "Six Jours de Nouméa - Province Sud - OPT", that finished in the capital city of New Caledonia on Wednesday night, after a 150-lap Madison. The decisive moment came as they won the above mentioned final race and regained the lap previously lost to France's Neuville and Perque.

It's the third victory in this competition for the french-caledonian rider, the first one for Baffi, who put an end to his racing career, marked by 15 wins in six-day events (two of them - Grenoble and Nouméa - during this season), in such a great fashion. Baffi was also homaged by local authorities for choosing the Australasian contest as the last race in his career.

Germany's Stefan "Steini" Steinweg and Eric Weispfennig captured the remaining podium place. The competition ended in the way many pundits expected to, with Tessier and teammate as deserved winners, and the strongest teams on paper living up to expectations by taking the whole podium.

"Best of the rest" were Benoît Genezeau and New Caledonian Nicolas Nagle, while another local hope, Thierry Fondere, took fifth. Sixth place in the final standings for the only Japanese in the race, Shinichi Fukushima, partnered by another crowd favourite, Yohan Honoré. Bad news for Jerry Bousquet and Jean-Charles Goyetche, forced to abandon reportedly due to a crash.

As a conseqeunce all other pairs at the bottom of the ranking moved up one place, but nevertheless contenders from New Zealand and OZ didn't have excellent performances. Aussie Steven Sitspartric finished in place number ten, ahead of Kiwi Adam Curry. The other new Zealander, Ryan Hoogenberg, finally scored one point (something Australians Dawson and Aubrey proved unable to do), but remained, along with teammate Benoît Powell, the "Lanterne Rouge" of the race.

French star Arnaud Tournant, cheered by a multitude of fans, won the Keirin competition, while the "Mini Six Days" was dominated by local riders Rémy Pollabauer and Tuanua Zahn, with the "multi-gender" teams featuring French ladies Cindy Baroni and Cathy Moncassion placing 6th and last (namely 8th) respectively. New Zealand's Williams finished halfway between them.

2. PERQUE Franck - NEUVILLE Jérôme (FRA) - 193 points

at 1 lap

3. STEINWEG Stefan - WEISPFENNIG Eric (GER) - 231 points

at 7 laps

4. NAGLE Nicolas (N.CAL) - GENAUZEAU Benoît (FRA) - 75 points

at 10 laps

5. FONDERE Thierry (N.CAL) - MERCIRIS Fabien (FRA) - 38 points

at 12 laps

6. HONORE Yohan (N.CAL) - FUKUSHIMA Shinichi (JAP) - 49 points

at 13 laps

7. AGEZ Cédric - FAYARD Frédéric (N.CAL) - 118 points

8. BOUFENECHE Alan (N.CAL) - CHARLOT Damien (FRA) - 6 points

at 14 laps

9. LANGE Karsten (GER) - GARBELLI Devid (ITA) - 10 points

at 21 laps

10. MARLIER Nicolas (N.CAL) - SITSPARTRIC Steven (AUS) - 4 points

at 31 laps

11. ROY Bryan (N.CAL) - CURRY Adam (NZL) - 6 points

at 38 laps

12. AUBREY Kevin - DAWSON Timothy (AUS) - 0 points

at 53 laps

13. HOOGENBERG Ryan (NZL) - POWELL Benoît - 1 point

Abandoned: BOUSQUET Jerry - GOYETCHE Jean-Charles (N.CAL)

at 4 laps

2. MAITERE Kévin - TEJADA François - 81 points

3. LATOUPIE Xavier - GUILLEMARD Cyril - 75 points

4. REB Sébastien - REB Guillaume - 41 points

5. LAMOTHE Julien - GUEPY Garry - 12 points

at 5 laps

6. LOQUET Wilfried - BARONI Cindy - 27 points

at 8 laps

7. ROYER Jean-Noël (N.CAL) - WILLIAMS Liz (NZl) - 23 points

at 9 laps

8. HERNU Gabriel (N.CAL) - MONCASSIN Cathy (FRA) - 5 points

Six Days of Nouméa - Palmares:

1977: Daniël Morelon - Pierre Bonno (France)

1980: Bernard Vallet (France) - Maurizio Bidinost (Italy)

1981: Francesco Moser - Maurizio Bidinost (Italy)

1982: Daniël Gisiger (Switzerland) - Didi Foubert (Belgium)

1989: Mark Victor - Jamie Kelly (Australia)

1990: Andreas Beikirch - Frank Kuhn (Germany)

1992: Michel Dubreuil (France) - Scott Mc Grory (Australia)

1993: Tony Davis - Stephen Pate (Australia)

1994: Jean-Claude Colotti - Jean-Michel Monin (France)

1995: Serge Barbara (France) - Glen Thomson (New Zealand)

1996: Michel Dubreuil - Carios Da Cruz (France)

1997: Christian Pierron - Jean-Michel Monin (France)

1998: Robert Sassone (France) - Jean-Michel Tessier (N. Cal.)

1999: ???

2000: Danny Clark - Graeme Brown (Australia)

2001: Robert Sassone (France) - Jean-Michel Tessier (N. Cal.)

2002: Adriano Baffi (Italy) - Jean-Michel Tessier (N. Cal.)