Kenny De Ketele took his second win in the Six-Days of Ghent when he and partner Jasper de Buyst beat Iljo Keisse and Mark Cavendish in a close battle. The Belgian was proud of his performance after a hard-fought battle where he had been given no gifts by his rivals.

Like Jasper de Buyst, Kenny De Ketele won the Six-Days of Ghent for the second time in his career earlier today. In 2011 he achieved the feat with Robert Bartko as his partner. This time he had de Buyst at his side.

"It's done. We have definitely not been given this victory as a gift," De Ketele told Het Nieuwsblad. "It was really a fight and a battle for every single point. Especially in the final madison, it was a war right until the final laps. We could not let Keisse and Cavendish go. Otherwise they would have stood on the top step of the podium. In the final hour of this Six-Day, that attitude cost us a lot of energy. I think that Keisse and Cavendish had to get used to each other in the beginning. Cavendish has an incredible speed but that's in a road race after nearly 200km and with a much bigger endurance. Sprinting in 't Kuipke is something different.

"We laid the foundation for our victory during the first days. There we picked up a lot of points which Keisse and Cavendish failed to do. We went into the finale with an advantage of 50 points. When we picked up a lot of points and did not Keisse and Cavendish. They pulled the final with 50 points behind. That's a good buffer. Everything was perfect in this race. We could beat them in the beginning and then respond to attacks whenever it was necessary."