The third evening of the Ghent Six Days saw plenty of action right from the first disciplines as both Otto Vergaerde/Jasper De Buyst and Gijs Van Hoecke/Kenny De Ketele decided to take the fight to previous leaders Iljo Keisse/Michael Mørkøv.

Van Hoecke/De Ketele opened strongly by winning the sprint series. Keisse/Mørkøv replied in equal measures as the claimed the team elimination for the successive night. Van Hoecke/De Ketele showed that they had their engines revved up as they were victorious in the subsequent 500m TTT.

They were unable to sustain their winning streak in the first Madison of the night, though, and they had to concede a lap to their two main rivals. Otto Vergaerde edged out Mørkøv in the final sprint to decide the Madison. In the final Madison, the three top teams eased off the pace somewhat, allowing Frenchman Morgan Kneisky and Belgian Moreno De Pauw to stroll away with the honours.

Midway through the race, it looks pretty much like a three teams affair. The six riders in those teams – of whom five are Belgian – appear to be in a league of their own.

Overall standings after the 3rd night:

1. Otto Vergaerde/Jasper De Buyst (Belgium) 215

At 1 lap:

2. Iljo Keisse (Belgium)/Michael Mørkøv (Denmark) 228

3. Gijs Van Hoecke/Kenny De Ketele (Belgium) 219

At 2 laps:

4. Moreno De Pauw (Belgium)/Morgan Kneisky (France) 204

5. Marc Hester/Alex Rasmussen (Denmark) 129

At 7 laps:

6. Jesper Mørkøv (Denmark)/Nick Stöpler (Holland) 60

At 8 laps:

7. Melvin van Zijl/Yoeri Havik (Holland) 83

8. Christian Grasmann/Marcel Kalz (Germany) 65

At 20 laps:

9. Christopher Lawless (Great Britain)/Roy Pieters (Holland) 40

At 21 laps:

10. Stijn Steels (Belgium)/Andreas Müller (Austria) 22

At 22 laps:

11. David Muntaner (Spain)/Lindsay De Vylder (Belgium) 32

At 24 laps:

12. Benjamin Thomas (France)/Tristan Marguet (Switzerland) 38