Van Hoecke and De Ketele battle hard but finish second
Pushed hard by rivals Robert Bartko and Silvan Dillier plus Gijs Van Hoecke and Kenny De Ketele, Iljo Keisse and Glenn O’Shea staged a late comeback to seal the Omega Pharma Quick Step team’s sixtieth victory of the season in Belgium today.
The duo won the Gent Six race with a total of 484 points, just twelve more than Team Topsport Vlaanderen –Mercator duo Van Hoecke and De Ketele. It was a victorious return for Keisse, who missed last year’s race due to a UCI ban which came at the end of a long to- and fro- legal tussle.
“It was a great race!” a delighted Keisse said. “I want to thank my teammate for all that he did during this race. We didn’t race before together, so we had to get used to each other. But we did it. There was some doubt about our ‘team,’ but I think that Glenn showed some great skills.”
The duo held the lead for several days and were in pole position heading into today’s final leg. They began well today by taking a Derny head, and also a points race plus team elimination events. However Bartko and Dillier were in a determined frame of mind in the last event of the day, the Madison, and they gained a lap within the first 25 minutes.
That spiced up the action and put considerable pressure on Keisse and O’Shea to respond; the duo did so several minutes later, regaining the lead and carrying a twelve point into the final five sprints. The tussle continued all the way to the line, with the final winning margin being twelve points over Van Hoecke and De Ketele.
“I would like to thank also my team for the support they always give,” said Keisse, who also competed on the road this year for Omega Pharma Quick Step and won a stage of the Presidential Tour of Turkey. “Last but not least let me thank the great public of Gent. They make the 6-days of Gent the best track race of the world!”
Gent Six Day, final overall:
1, Iljo Keisse/Glenn O’Shea (Team Omega Pharma) 484 points
2, Gijs Van Hoecke/Kenny De Ketele (Team Topsport Vlaanderen -Mercator) 472
3, Silvan Dillier/Robert Bartko (Team Mega Doe-Het-Zeif – John Saey) 335
4, Marc Hester/Hansen Lasse (Team VDK) 245 (+4 laps)
5, Wim Stroetinga/Peter Schep (Team ADMB) 138 (+9 laps)