The opening night of the 84th Lotto Six Days Flanders-Ghent immediately produced fireworks. World Champions Van den Bossche and De Vylder won the first Madison, Olympic Champion Thomas and his teammate Nilsson-Julien the second… But it is Ghent native Jules Hesters and his Dutch companion Yoeri Havik who are in the lead after day 1.
Havik immediately set the tone by winning the first points race, ahead of Fabio Van den Bossche and Benjamin Thomas, no less. Germany’s Tim Torn Teutenberg won the second points race, relegating Jules Hesters to second place.
Thomas then won the first elimination race after a very tight sprint against Jasper De Buyst, who forms a duo in Ghent with the departing Elia Viviani. The track race was won by Noah Vandenbranden and Gianluca Pollefliet.
In the first Madison, Thomas and Nilsson-Julien made a mistake. They had to concede three laps to almost all the other favourites. Van den Bossche and De Vylder, as World Champions, won the first Madison and were therefore in the lead halfway through the opening night.
After the break, during which Jelle Van Dael set the Kuipke alight with a spectacular performance, the audience thoroughly enjoyed two derny races, won by De Buyst and Van den Bossche.
Vincent Hoppezak beat Jules Hesters in the second elimination race, and then Tom Crabbe had two opportunities to celebrate. First as the winner of the scratch race and then, together with his British teammate Mark Stewart, as the winner of the 500-metre time trial.
In the second and final Madison, Thomas and Nilsson-Julien somewhat rectified their earlier mistake. The Frenchmen won with brio and thus made up one lap of their three-lap deficit.
In the classification after the opening day, Thomas and Nilsson-Julien are sixth, now two laps behind five other duos. Hesters and Havik lead with 68 points. Van den Bossche and De Vylder are second (57), Dorenbos and Hoppezak third (49), Kluge and Teutenberg fourth (44) and De Buyst and Viviani (37) fifth.
