On the fourth day of exciting racing, crowd favourites Iljo Keisse and Mark Cavendish have taken the lead in the Six-Days of Ghent. The pair have scored 233 points. Leif Lampater and Silvan Dillier are second with 217 points while previous leaders Jasper de Buyst and Kenny De Ketele are one lap behind with 298 points. Alex Rasmussen and Marc Hester are fourth and the rest of the peloton is at least two laps behind.

After the second discipline, the time trial, Cavendish and Keisse passed the 200-point mark, meaning that they got a bonus lap. That put them back into the lead and held that position going into the first madison over 45 minutes and 6 laps. In that race, de Buysta dn De Ketele rode very offensively but four leading pair were watching themselves very closely and bringing back every breakaway attempts. When it seemed virtually impossible to for any of the leading couples to gain a lap, thanks to German’s tactical astuteness Lampater and Dillier mage a gutsy move and brought themselves back into contention following the first big chase.

In the exciting 500 meters time trial, Belgian Moreno de Pauw not only beat specialists Jasper de Buyst and Alex Rasmussen, but set the new record of the ‘Kuipke velodrome in Ghent, covering the distance in 27.03’’, being rewarded for his great effort with a standing ovation.

The Danish pair was the first to gain a lap in the Friday’s night final Madison, but due to either lack of strength or tactical astuteness they weren’t able to hold on to their advantage, eventually finishing at 1 lap and 207 points. Overnight leaders de Buyst and De Ketele are on the same lap as Rasmussen and Hester, but with 298 points on their account they are about to break the third century and collect a bonus.

Before the final two days of competition it Ghent it seems almost settled that a battle for a victory will be fought by the Belgian couple and crowd favourites riding in the Omega Pharma – Quick Step outfits, but a sparkling combination of experience and youth power brought by Lampater and Dillier also shouldn’t be underestimated. 

Overall standings:

1. Iljo Keisse/Mark Cavendish (Bel/GBr) 260 points
2. Leif Lampater/Silvan Dillier (Ger/Swi) 217
 

At 1 lap:

3. Jasper De Buyst/Kenny De Ketele (Bel) 298
4. Alex Rasmussen/Marc Hester (Den) 207
 
At 2 laps:

5. Otto Vergaerde/Nick Stöpler (Bel/Ned) 162
 
At 3 laps:

6. Moreno De Pauw/Christian Grasmann (Bel/Ger) 156
7. Albert Torres/David Muntaner (Spa) 118
 
At 8 laps:

8. Glenn O'Shea/Shane Archbold (Aus/NZe) 154
 
At 12 laps

9. Morgan Kneisky/Vivien Brisse (Fra) 57
 
At 13 laps

10. Ivan Savitsky/Viktor Manakov (Rus) 95
 
At 18 laps

11. Michael Vingerling/Yoeri Havik (Ned) 76
12. Lucas Liss/Andreas Müller (Ger) 24
 
At 19 laps

13. Didier Caspers/Melvin van Zijl (Ned) 6