Iljo Keisse and Niki Terpstra lost the lead in the 6-Days of Rotterdam yesterday evening but the pair still has a great chance of defending last year's win. UIV president Henrik Elmgreen sees Keisse as the strongest rider in the event as he writes in the following small analysis of the second race day.

The second evening in Rotterdam ended as an evening of the Belgians and especially for De Ketele – De Buyst, finishing as overall leaders after the final Madison Friday evening.

The evening started again with the 100 lap Madison with four intermediate sprints, won by Havik – Stöpler and thus giving the Dutchmen a bit of a “consolation prize”, but at the end of the day they had only moved up one place in the overall in 6th spot, five laps behind the leaders. Surely not what the young boys had hoped for in this race…

The last Madison (200 laps = 40 Km) showed again, that the four teams on top are in a league for themselves, at least one class higher than the rest. Even if the German-Dutch combination Lampater – Markus is doing a pretty good job. And again the Belgian colours were the most visible!

Who is the strongest man on the track?

Probably Iljo Keisse. With about 50 laps to go in the final Madison he initiated an attack which brought him and Terpstra a lap-win together with Danes Mørkøv – Rasmussen, but without any hesitation he went along for a second lap and realized one of the spectacular “doublets”, which you now-a-days see more and more seldom in the 6-Days.

The great winners of the evening were in the end De Ketele – De Buyst. Together with Mouris – Stroetinga they achieved a lap-win during the last 20 laps of racing and won the final sprint. A lap which brought the Belgian’s in leading position and for the Dutchmen meant that they are still in close contact with the other top-teams.

You can find the overall standings here.