What a sensational final night is about to come in the "Berlin Six", with three pairs on the same lap and in a 15-point gap, and one more couple sitting a lap behind, but just two points from getting a bonus lap. Four teams are still harbouring legitimate hopes to grab overall victory, to start from Italy's Villa and Martinello, who won the 45-minute Madison ahead of Risi and Betschart and got back to the top spot on Monday night's session, and are currently leading the Swiss pair by 5 points.

40-year-old Martinello is taking part in the last race of his successful career, and ending in such a fashion would be a perfect way for this legendary rider to bid farewell to the track cycling scene, which saw him clinch severall World and Olympic Titles, but even more become one of the greatest 6-day riders ever, as the Paduan has got 28 wins out of 94 participations in such events.

But the "Alpen-Tornados", Swiss Risi and Betschart, will definitely try to deny Martinello a 29th victory (the fifth one in this particular contest), and replace an eventual "happy end" of the Italian's career with their own 31st win in 6-day races, consequently bettering the record they set in Gand this past November.

Also home favourites Kappes and Beikirch, winners of the 30-minute Madison on Monday night, and currently just 15 points behind the leaders, have some good reasons to aim for overall victory, as they will try to take revenge after narrwoly missing the "Stuttgart Six" title last week.

And of course you can't rule out Scott McGrory and Matt Gilmore, the accomplished six-day specialists who have enjoyed a very good season so far on German tracks. After winning the races in both Munich an Stuttgart, the Aussie-Belgian duo is now given the chance to score the hat-trick in Berlin's Velodrom. No doubts they'll do their best not to waste it.

Very few, if no chances at all, are given to all other teams instead, starting from Holland's Slippens and Stam. The "Bremen Six" champions are indeed trailing three laps behind Villa and Martinello. Britain's Chris Newton and Italian partner Adriano Baffi (another 40-year-old who is going to put an end to his 6-day career tonight) are still sitting in eighth place, five laps down to the top pairs. American Marty Nothstein and South Africa's Van Zyl dramatically dropped to 15th overall. Belgian Lorenzo Lapage, who is about to end his career as a rider as well, and join USPS as one of Johan Bruyneel's assistants, is currently last.

As for minor competitions, Jens Fielder still comfortably leads the Sprinter Championships, and is likely to repeat last year's overall victory, as well as Sören Lausberg is about to finish second again. And Laurent Gané to replace 2002 third place getter Arnauld Tournant as french podium finisher. Britain's Craig McLean is in fifth place, wth no chances of an overall win.

Not just Martinello and Fielder, but also Carsten Podlesch has the opportunity to repeat last year's overall win. The defending champion is currently leading the Stayer Championship, although he has got the same score as Swiss Peter Jörg, with fellow German Stefan Klare 2 points behind. Christoph Meschenmoser and Stefan Löffler (the latter also won the "U23 Franziskaner Rad Open" in Munich in November) didn't give up the leadership in the Under 23 6-Day, and are now 11 points clear of fellow Germans Bommel and Bengsch, and Czech contenders Lazar and Blaha, whereas Pieper and Welsch moved down two places into fifth.

While there's still one session to go for all of the above mentioned races, the "Elite Omnium" competition ended on Monday, with Alex Rasmussen of Denmark claiming the title from strong Muscovite Alexej Chmidt, and Michael Berling taking third.

92th Six Days of Berlin - Overall Standings after Night 5

1. Silvio Martinello – Marco Villa (ITA) - 234 points

2. Bruno Risi – Kurt Betschart (SWI) - 229 points

3. Andreas Kappes – Andreas Beikrich (GER) - 219 points

at 1 lap

4. Scott McGrory (AUS) – Matthew Gilmore (BEL) - 193 points

at 3 laps

5. Robert Slippens – Danny Stam (HOL) - 167 points

at 4 laps

6. Franco Marvulli – Alexander Aeschbach (SWI) - 160 points

at 5 laps

7. Guido Fulst – Andreas Müller (GER) - 136 points

8. Adriano Baffi (ITA) – Chris Newton (GBR) - 79 points

at 9 laps

9. Jimmi Madsen – Michael Sandstød (DEN) - 18 points

at 12 laps

10. Lars Teutenberg – Frank Kowatschitsch (GER) - 62 points

at 13 laps

11. Jérôme Neuville – Franck Perque (FRA) - 64 points

12. Christian Bach – Erik Weispfennig (GER) - 50 points

13. Franz Stocher (AUT) – Jozef Zabka (SVK) - 34 points

at 14 laps

14. Jens Lehmann – Gerd Dörich (GER) - 104 points

15. Marty Nothstein (USA) – Jean-Pierre van Zyl (RSA) - 95 points

16. Stefan Steinweg – Marc Altmann (GER) - 47 points

at 17 laps

17. Mario Vonhof (GER) – Jimmy Hansen (DEN) - 69 points

18. Lorenzo Lapage (BEL) – Ronny Lauke (GER) - 28 points

1. Jens Fiedler (GER) - 64 points

2. Sören Lausberg (GER) - 49 points

3. Laurent Gané (FRA) - 47 points

4. René Wolff (GER) - 41 points

5. Craig McLean (GBR) - 27 points

6. Ainars Kiksis (LAT) - 24 points

1. Carsten Podlesch (GER) - 10 points

2. Peter Jörg (SWI) - 10 points

3. Stefan Klare (GER) - 12 points

4. Lubomir Mazel (CZE) - 20 points

5. Francis de Jager (HOL) - 25 points

6. Jan Richter (GER) - 29 points

7. Marco Ulbricht (GER) - 34 points

8. Frank Schneider (GER) - 40 points

1. Christoph Meschenmoser – Stefan Löffler (GER) - 74 points

2. Henning Bommel – Robert Bengsch (GER) - 63 points

3. Martin Blaha – Petr Lazar (CZE) - 63 points

4. Gideo de Jong – Geert van Jonkman (HOL) - 53 points

5. Florian Pieper – Andreas Welsch (GER) - 51 points

6. Lars H. Thomsen – Michael S. Larsen (DEN) - 50 points

7. Sven Krauss – Jan Ott (GER) - 40 points

8. Daniel Musiol – Karl-Christian König (GER) - 50 points

9. Sascha Richter - Karsten Lange (GER) - 30 points

10. Daniel Palicki - Patrick Betz (GER) - 19 points

1. Alex Rasmussen (DEN) - 26 points

2. Alexej Chmidt (RUS) - 24 points

3. Michael Berling (DEN) - 12 points

4. Patrcik Holsche (GER) - 11 points

5. Sergei Kudenzov (RUS) - 9 points

6. Marko Sawall (GER) - 7 points

7. Christian Jäger (GER) - 5 points

8. Robert Gerhardt(GER) - 5 points

9. Morten Rejnhold (DEN) - 4 points

10. Jens-Erik Madsen (DEN) - 3 points

The ultimate night of racing will go live on Germany's Berlin TV tonight, starting at about 9PM. But today track cycling fans all over Europe will be given the chance to watch even more action, as the 1-hour program showing the highlights of the Six Days of Bremen ("39. Bremer Sechstagerennen 2003"), held on January 09-14, is scheduled to go on Eurosport this evening at 1800 Hours (Central European Time, 5PM in the UK & Ireland). Don't miss it ! And don't miss the Daily Peloton's coverage of the track cycling season.

Detailed news and results of all main track cycling events held so far this season available in the links below.