Robbe Ghys and Lindsay De Vylder seized power on the second day of the Lotto Zesdaagse Vlaanderen-Gent. The duo won three tests and set a new track record. Iljo Keisse and duo Jan-Willem van Schip and Tuur Dens, with another record in the 500 metres, also set ‘t Kuipke on fire.
No duo had digested the first day better than Robbe Ghys and Lindsay De Vylder. The pair from Limburg and East Flanders won three of the first four trials.
In the first points race, won by Jules Hesters from Ghent, Ghys missed out on points because of his eleventh place, but he then dominated for the next hour. De Vylder grabbed the ten points in the second points race and a little later the duo also took the maximum points in the team elimination.
New track record
However, Ghys and De Vylder’s moment of glory was yet to come. Jan-Willem Van Schip and Tuur Dens were already close to the track record with a lap of 8.464 in the track lap. The crowd could sense that something was about to go down. Ghys and De Vylder took off last and pushed up the decibel meter even more: 8.406 seconds. A new track record finally pushing the previous best time set by Moreno De Pauw (8.43) off the tables after five years.
‘t Kuipke was desperate for a triumph by Iljo Keisse, but the retiring crowd favourite and Jasper De Buyst were narrowly beaten by German duo Roger Kluge/Theo Reinhardt in the Madison.
The roof lifts off (x 2)
But it was not over yet. After victories by Yoeri Havik and De Buyst in the Derny races and a victory in between for lone wolf Silvan Dillier, the Swiss rider who lost his teammate Stijn Steels yesterday, the roof did come off ‘t Kuipke in the Supersprint. Keisse raced to win the scratch authoritatively. ‘Iljoo, Iljoooo, Iljooo’ echoed from the stands once again.
The spectators had barely recovered when the place was set alight again. In the 500-metre time trial, Jan-Willem van Schip and Tuur Dens set a new record for the second day: 24.464. Another three hundredths faster than their one-day-old record.
New leaders
Victory in the final Madison went to Vincent Hoppezak and Philip Heijnen, but the big winners of the day were Ghys and De Vylder. They take the lead from Fabio Van den Bossche and Yoeri Havik, the only duo still on the same lap. Ghys and De Vylder have a five-point lead. Hoppezak and Heijnen complete the top three.
Standings after 2 days:
1. De Vylder/Ghys 128, 2. Van den Bossche/Havik 123 (0), 3. Hoppezak/Heijnen 110 (1), 4. Hesters/Teutenberg 95 (1), 5. Keisse/De Busyt 63 (1), 6. Kluge/Reinhardt 34 (1), 7. Hayter/Wright 59 (2), 8. Van Schip/Dens 96 (4), 9. Pollefliet/Vandenbranden 49 (10), 10. Van Mulders 27 (14), 11. Thijssen/Johansen 15 (14), 12. Dillier/Steels 42 (17)
