Cavendish and Keisse retain Gent lead on day 5

Mark Cavendish and Iljo Keisse retained their position at the top of the standings on day five of the Gent Six, despite Cavendish crashing earlier in the night. The pair remain behind Jasper De Buyst and Kenny De Ketele on points, but are one lap ahead of the Dutch duo. Only 48 points, and a lap, separate the leading pairs making it all to play for on the final session on Sunday.

De Ketele and De Buyst quickly regained the lead early in the evening with victory in the team elimination, but it didn’t last long. Cavendish took a tumble in the first Madison of the evening, leaving Keisse to complete some extra laps while the Manxman got back to his feet. Cavendish was back on the bike before long and the Omega Pharma-QuickStep pair went on to win the race, nudging themselves over the 300-point mark and earning a vital bonus lap to move them to the top of the standings.

Cavendish also took victory in second the derny race. Madison World Champions Albert Torres and David Muntaner claimed victory in the final Madison of the evening.

“So proud of my mate @MarkCavendish ! Crashed, jumped on his bike, took a doublette, suffered like hell, won that chase and took the lead!” Keisse wrote on twitter after the session finished. “That's how we do it, keep going, never give up, no pain no gain! Cav you are The Man! I love you in a good way!”

Leif Lampater and Silvain Dillier remain in third place, 18 points ahead of Alex Rasmussen and Marc Hester.

Results

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Standings after day 5
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResultHeader Cell - Column 3
1Mark Cavendish(GBr)/ Iljo Keisse (Bel) Omega Pharma-QuickStep330pts
2Jasper De Buyst (Bel)/ Kenny De Ketele (Bel) Team Baloise Insurance378 +1LapRow 1 - Cell 3
3Leif Lampater (Bel)/ Dillier Silvan (Sui) Team Caruur272Row 2 - Cell 3
4Alex Rasmussen (Den)/ Marc Hester (Den) Team Lotto254Row 3 - Cell 3
5Nick Stöpler (Bel)/ Otto Vergaerde (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen198 +4LapsRow 4 - Cell 3
6Moreno De Pauw (Bel) / Christian Grasmann (Ger) Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen190 +6LapsRow 5 - Cell 3
7Albert Torres (Spa)/ David Muntaner (Spa) John Saey – Lecot148 +7LapsRow 6 - Cell 3
8Glenn O'Shea (Aus)/- Shane Archbold (NZl) Callant - Upgrade Estate174 +13LapsRow 7 - Cell 3
9Ivan Savitsky (Rus)/ Viktor Manakov (Rus) Primus Haacht130 +19LapsRow 8 - Cell 3
10Morgan Kneisky (Fra) - Vivien Brisse (Fra) T-Interim67 +20LapsRow 9 - Cell 3
11Michael Vingerling (Ned)/ Yoeri Havik (Ned) Team 3M84 +24LapsRow 10 - Cell 3
12Lucas Liss (Ger)/ Andreas Müller (Ger) Vanreusel Snacks34Row 11 - Cell 3
13Didier Caspers (Ned)/ Melvin Van Zijl (Ned) Eurotyre – JDK6 +25LapsRow 12 - Cell 3

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