The opening night at the Zürich Six Day Nights saw a blistering pace as three teams distinguished themselves as possible victors.

Young Belgian prospect Jasper De Buyst continued his splendid form from the Ghent Six Days as he assumed the overall lead together with compatriot Kenny De Ketele who was arguably the strongest rider on the opening night.

Dillier/Keisse won the opening Madison as Dillier edged out Roger Kluge in the decisive sprint. Barely five minutes into the first Madison, which was also the first event of the evening, the Swiss/Belgian pair lapped the field twice in succession to grab the lead. Lampater/Kluge was the only team able to stay in the same lap as Dillier/Keisse.

After winning the Madison, Keisse commented on the demanding opening of the race.

“It’s always tough to start a race with a Madison, and the pace set today was really high, but I’m glad we had to legs and the stamina to see it through, and thanks to my team mate we were able to conclude the Madison in the best way possible.”

Later on Keisse was engaged in a breath-taking duel with his young compatriot De Buyst as the two decided the outcome of the team elimination race. Following repeated and mutual head-butting in the build-up to the sprint, the young Belgian managed to edge out his more experienced opponent.

De Buyst, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Sunday by winning the Ghent Six Days race together with Leif Lampater, carried his excellent form into the final Madison of the evening. The field was splintered into pieces on several occasions as many teams, including the reigning world Madison champions and home crowd favourites Marvulli/Marguet, suffered badly. In the end, the Madison was won by Spaniards Muntaner/Torres, but Lampater/Kluge showed ominous tactical wisdom while De Ketele radiated brute force throughout.

The Spaniards rode intelligently throughout the evening to remain in the same lap as the three pre-race favourites but it will be somewhat surprising if they are able to maintain their current position throughout the event.

Overall standing after day 1:

1 De Ketele/De Buyst 70, 2 Dillier/Keisse 53, 3 Muntaner Torres 44, 4 Kluge/Lampater 31,

at 1 lap: 5 Küng/Schir 40, 6 Kneisky/Brisse 28, at 2 laps: 7 Marvulli/Marguet 46, 8 Grasmann/Graf 24,

9 Thièry/Keller 15, at 3 laps: 10 Suter/Moser 21, 11 Hester/Mørkøv 18, at 4 laps: 5 M. Kreder/R. Kreder 6.