Olympic Omnium champion Benjamin Thomas and bronze medalist Fabio Van den Bossche charged to the victory within the 66th version of the Gent Six Day on Sunday, launching a late assault to steal a lap in ‘t Kuipke.
Lindsay De Vylder and Robbe Ghys led the Six Day from the primary night time and headed into the ultimate Madison with a 44-point lead over Thomas and Van den Bossche.
Nonetheless, there have been two different groups on the identical lap: Jules Hesters and Aaron Gate, who had been 9 factors additional down in third and Madison World Champions Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt in fourth.
Whereas Hesters launched an assault to attempt to take a lap late within the remaining Madison, Thomas and Van den Bossche had been those who profited. They sat again and let De Vylder and Ghys do the chasing after which launched a devastating remaining blow when Hesters was reeled in.
“We had been the hunters this week. Jules (Hesters) rode a heroic staff race and put lots of stress on the leaders,” Thomas mentioned. “We took benefit of that. We knew we had a bullet and we had to make use of it on the proper second.”
The victory was a primary for Fabio Van den Bossche, who mentioned the staff at all times saved some vitality in reserve till the ultimate race.
“At present we tried to play out that Lindsay and Robbe as leaders needed to management three duos. We waited and seemed for the suitable second. We succeeded,” Van den Bossche mentioned.
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“It is spectacular how the winners nonetheless received a lap on the finish. It was a really onerous race, Ghys and De Vylder needed to shut every part,” Hesters mentioned.
“Thomas took the lap with Van den Bossche that we could not take. That was on the most troublesome second of the race. You may see that Thomas nonetheless had some left and he made essentially the most of it.”
De Vylder gave credit score to the successful staff for popping out robust on the final day.
“We have been very dominant this week,” De Vylder mentioned. “However the winners rode a improbable remaining day. Over the entire week we had been maybe the strongest pair, [but] they had been at present.”
Outcomes
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Rank
Group
Factors
1
Benjamin Thomas (Fra) / Fabio Van den Bossche (Bel)
338
2 (+1 lap)
Lindsay De Vylder (Bel) / Robbe Ghys (Bel)
370
3
Jules Hesters (Bel) / Aaron Gate (NZl)
317
4 (+2 laps)
Roger Kluge (Ger) / Theo Reinhardt (Ger)
134
5 (+15 laps)
Mark Stewart (GBr) / Philip Heijnen (Ned)
150
6 (+19 laps)
Jan-Willem van Schip (Ned) / Yanne Dorenbos (Ned)
169
7 (+33 laps)
Oscar Nilsson-Julien (Fra) / Valentin Tablion (Fra)
