Benjamin Thomas and Fabio Van Den Bossche win Gent Six Day with gorgeous late assault

Olympic Omnium champion Benjamin Thomas and bronze medalist Fabio Van den Bossche charged to the victory within the 66th version of the Gent Six Day on Sunday, launching a late assault to steal a lap in ‘t Kuipke.

Lindsay De Vylder and Robbe Ghys led the Six Day from the primary evening and headed into the ultimate Madison with a 44-point lead over Thomas and Van den Bossche.

However, there have been two different groups on the identical lap: Jules Hesters and Aaron Gate, who had been 9 factors additional down in third and Madison World Champions Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt in fourth.

While Hesters launched an assault to attempt to take a lap late within the remaining Madison, Thomas and Van den Bossche had been those who profited. They sat again and let De Vylder and Ghys do the chasing after which launched a devastating remaining blow when Hesters was reeled in.

“We had been the hunters this week. Jules (Hesters) rode a heroic staff race and put plenty of stress on the leaders,” Thomas stated. “We took benefit of that. We knew we had a bullet and we had to make use of it on the proper second.”

The victory was a primary for Fabio Van den Bossche, who stated the staff at all times stored some power in reserve till the ultimate race.

“Today we tried to play out that Lindsay and Robbe as leaders needed to management three duos. We waited and appeared for the proper second. We succeeded,” Van den Bossche stated.

“It’s spectacular how the winners nonetheless acquired a lap on the finish. It was a really arduous race, Ghys and De Vylder needed to shut every part,” Hesters stated.

“Thomas took the lap with Van den Bossche that we could not take. That was on the most troublesome second of the race. You may see that Thomas nonetheless had some left and he made probably the most of it.”

De Vylder gave credit score to the profitable staff for popping out sturdy on the final day.

“We’ve been very dominant this week,” De Vylder stated. “But the winners rode a incredible remaining day. Over the entire week we had been maybe the strongest pair, [but] they had been right now.”

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