Iljo Keisse and Mark Cavendish will go into the final day of the Six-Days of Ghent as the major favourites. Yesterday the pair demonstrated their superiority in the final madison.

Six-Day races are ysyally determined on the final day and that will be no different in Ghent. Keisse-Cavendish or De Ketele-de Buyst? That is the main duel which will be decided this afternoon in De Kuipke in Ghent - with Lampater-Dillier and Rasmussen-Hester looming as potential foreign threats.

"If the favourites look too much at each other... At some point, I will dare to attack, " Leif Lampater told Het Nieuwsblad. Last year the German won the race overall with Jasper de Buyst. However, it seems that it will be hard for anyone to create a surprise.

Iljo Keisse seems to be back to his best after a shaky start and has regained his smooth pace on the track. But on Saturday he seemed just to be waiting - despite the presence of Peta Todd, Cavendish's girlfriend, and their children Finnbar and Delilah. It was, however, a mere waiting game. In the team elimination, it came down to a battle between the big teams, with Kenny De Ketele narrowly beating Keisse in the final sprint. 

De Ketele-de Buyst did well to score many points. Despite building a considerable points lead, however, Keisse-Cavendish were close to passing another 100-point mark before the final madison, meaning that they would take another bonus lap.

Like on Friday, it was Iljo Keisse who took the initiative, meaning that his rivals had to work hard to prevent him from gaining another lap. The race was momentatirly put on hold after a crash from David Muntaner and Vivien Brisse - who was temporarily taken out of the race - and later even Cavendish hit the deck, luckily without any major injuries.

Keisse responded to the accident in an excllent way by doing a few extra laps to allow his teammate to recover. Meanwhile, De Ketele and de Buyst were ready to strike. It came down to a merciless fight under the supervision of a superior Keisse. However, the Belgian had to wait to the final sprint before he could celebrate a deserved victory in the madison.

Overall standings:

1. Mark Cavendish / Iljo Keisse 330 pt 

1 lap:

2. Jasper the Buyst / Kenny De Ketele 378 pt

3. Leif Lampater / Silvan Dillier 272 pt

4. Alex Rasmussen / Marc Hester 254 pt

4 laps:

5. Nick Stöpler / Otto Vergaerde 198 pt

6 laps:

6. Moreno De Pauw / Christian Grassmann 190 pt

7 laps:

7. Albert Torres / David Muntaner 148 pt

13 laps:

8. Glenn O'Shea / Shane Archbold 174 pt

19 laps:

9. Ivan Savitsky / Viktor Manakov 130pt

20 laps:

10. Morgan Kneisky / Vivien Brisse 67 pt

24 laps:

11. Michael Vingerling/ Yoeri Hawik 84 pt

12. Andreas Müller / Lucas Liss 34pt

25 laps:

13. Melvin van Zijl / Didier Caspers 6pt