Thibaut Van Damme and Witse Bertels are the leaders in the U23 AVS Cup after the opening day of the 84th Lotto Six Days Flanders-Ghent. The young Belgians reinforced their first place with a new track record in the 500 metres.
In the first points race, Van Damme had to settle for fifth place, good for three points in the overall classification. Germany’s Moritz Mauss won the race and took home the full ten points.
The second points race was won by Bertels, who left Mauss’s teammate Tobias Müller behind.
In the third and final test of the day, the 500-metre time trial, the Germans finished third in 28.411. Italians Davide Stella and Matteo Fiorin clocked the second-fastest time with 28.087.
Only one team remained below the 28-second mark: Van Damme and Bertels even improved on the two-year-old (U23) track record of Nolan Huysmans and Thibaut Bernard, which stood at 27.810, with a time of 27.566.
Van Damme and Bertels lead the general classification of the U23 AVS Cup with 23 points. That is 2 more than Mauss and Müller. Switzerland’s Matteo Constant and Arthur Guillet follow in third place with 8 points, some distance behind.
