Iljo Keisse is going for his eight overall win in “his” Kuipke at the 79th edition of the Lotto Six Days of Flanders-Ghent. The local favourite is teaming up with Mark Cavendish on Sunday 17 November.
The British sprinter recently took part in the six dace race of London and is heading to Ghent on Thursday to train with Keisse.
“Cavendish is ready to ride in Ghent,” Keisse said in the pre-event press conference. “He just competed in the six days of London and he’s hyper motivated to shone. As for myself, we still have to wait and see. I haven’t competed yet on the track this year and in Paris-Roubaix I had a bad crash. My elbow had to recover for a long time while everyone else was racing. On the road the injury doesn’t bother me anymore, but I don’t know if that will be the case on track. I will have to launch Cavendish several times per night. It’s a huge load on the joint, but we’re going do our best.”
Keisse and Cavendish will have to be at their best of they want to compete for the win against a strong line-up. “The Germans Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt were fourth last year, but the madison world champions will do everything they can to be on the podium this year. Then there’s the duo Kenny De Ketele and Robbe Ghys. They are used to racing with each other. Jasper De Buyst and Tosh Van der Sande will also be fierce opponents. That’s at least four pairings for three podium places. It will be a fight from day one until Sunday.”
