The ‘Devil’ had just started in Day three of the Rotterdam Six Day 2012 when I wandered down the stairs in search of bottles of water (still – no gas), and by the time I got back what should have been ‘just another race’ had become another of those episodes which remind you that as well as being glamorous, the sport is also a very dangerous one.
Nick Stöpler isn’t a big name yet in the world of the Sixes, but the fact that the organisers paired him with Danish star Alex Rasmussen says a lot about what they hope for in the future from this young man.
But in a blink, on Saturday night, his career may be at an end.
The first story was that his ‘Sphinx’ bars had done the damage — displacing his knee cap and slicing the muscle and tendon at the right knee.
But I spoke to Alex after the incident and his take was that Stöpler had hit the fence at the t