Iljo Keisse and Mark Cavendish took an important lap in the points race on the third night of the Six-Days of Ghent. By taking a bonus lap, however, Jasper de Buyst and Kenny De Ketele defended their lead at the halfway point of the event.

Jasper de Buyst and Kenny De Ketele still lead the Six-Days of Ghent after the third night. The Belgian duo has now scored 231 points. Iljo Keisse and Mark Cavendish are second in the standings .They are still on the same laps but have scored 44 points less than the leaders.

Danes Alex Rasmussen and Marc Hester (162 points) and the German-Swiss duo Leif Lampater / Silvan Dillier (150 points) are one lap behind. The Belgian-Dutch pair Otto Vergaerde and Nick Stöpler (121 points) are fifth.

The rest of the pairs are at least two laps behind de Buyst/De Ketele and Keisse/Cavendish.

Remarkably, Iljo Keisse and Mark Cavendish already took a lap in the first discipline, the points race. By doing so, they moved into the lead, one lap ahead of their nearest rivals. After the seventh discipline, the time trial which they won, Jasper de Buyst and Kenny De Ketele passed the 200-point mark and so got a bonus lap, meaning that they again took the lead.

Jasper de Buyst/Kenny De Ketele and Iljo Keisse/Mark Cavendish started the first madison of the evening, held over 45 minutes and six laps, equal on laps. In the end, Kenny De Ketele got his revenge in the madison after a thrilling final sprint against Mark Cavendish and so increased their lead by another 8 points.

Overall standings

1. Jasper De Buyst/Kenny De Ketele (Bel) 231 points
2. Iljo Keisse/Mark Cavendish (Bel/GBr) 187

1 lap:
3. Alex Rasmussen/Marc Hester (Den) 162
4. Leif Lampater/Silvan Dillier (Ger/Swi) 150
5. Otto Vergaerde/Nick Stöpler (Bel/Ned) 121

2 laps:

6. Moreno De Pauw/Christian Grasmann (Bel/Ger) 104

3 laps:

7. Glenn O'Shea/Shane Archbold (Aus/NZe) 122
8. Albert Torres/David Muntaner (Spa) 82

9 laps:

9. Morgan Kneisky/Vivien Brisse (Fra) 47

10 laps:

10. Ivan Savitsky/Viktor Manakov (Rus) 69

12 laps:

11. Michael Vingerling/Yoeri Havik (Ned) 57

13 laps:

12. Lucas Liss/Andreas Müller (Ger/Aut) 12
13. Didier Caspers/Melvin van Zijl (Ned) 6