Records are falling from the sky like autumn leaves at this year’s Lotto Zesdaagse Vlaanderen-Gent. For a third day in a row, a top time was broken at ‘t Kuipke. Robbe Ghys and Lindsay De Vylder improved the track record a day after their previous best time and remain in the lead. Four teams enter the third night on the same lap.
Robbe Ghys and Lindsay De Vylder are in top shape. The duo from Limburg and East Flanders seized power on the second day of the Lotto Zesdaagse Vlaanderen-Gent and simply continued that streak on Thursday.
In the opening numbers, Ghys and De Vylder kept their distance, the points races going to Jan Willem van Schip and Silvan Dillier, but then they drew all the attention to themselves with wins in the always spectacular team elimination and track round.
You had to be there to believe it, but a day after Ghys and De Vylder bettered Moreno De Pauw’s five-year-old track record, the duo managed to chisel away at it a bit more. New best time: 8.332 seconds. Unbelievable! The decibel meter went berserk.
Iljooo!
The next goosebump moments were for Iljo Keisse. The Keizer van ‘t Kuipke first won a thrilling 45-minute Madison with Jasper De Buyst. The duo constantly chose to go on the attack and this was finally rewarded with 20 extra points. In the final sprint, De Buyst made it across the line ahead of Ghys and Fabio Van den Bossche.
In the second Derny race, the roof was lifted off completely. Keisse went into the final lap trailing De Vylder, but after a fine remount and an ultimate jump, the man from Ghent still took the win. In between, the first Derny race and Supersprint were won by Roger Kluge and Dane Matias Malmberg respectively.
No record for Degrendele
Carried by the crowd, Nicky Degrendele attacked her own track record, but the former World Keirin Champion remained almost two tenths above her best time with a time of 10.132.
It made the crowd wish for a new record for Jan Willem van Schip and Tuur ‘Terminator’ Dens in the 500 metres. The duo claimed that event for themselves for the third day in a row, but a third consecutive record was not in the cards. The winning time: 26.611
Four duos on the same lap
Jules Hesters and Tim Torn Teutenberg made the final Madison their own. The duo took a lap back on the competition. Keisse and De Buyst rounded the hundred points mark thanks to their second place taking us into the third night with four duos on the same lap. De Vylder and Ghys remain in the lead with 193 points.
Standings after 3 days: 1. De Vylder/Ghys 193, 2. Van den Bossche Havik 173 (0), 3. Hesters/Torn 144 (0) Teutenberg, 4. Keisse/De Buyst 100 (0), , 5. Hayter/Wright 106 (3), 6. Hoppezak/Heijnen 128 (4), 7. Kluge/Reinhardt 53 (5), 8. Van Schip/Dens 140 (7), 9. Pollefliet/Vandenbranden 81 (18), 10. Van Mulders/Malmberg 53 (22), 11. Thijssen/Johansen 25 (22), 12. Dillier/Steels 67 (26)
