final day

Sunday morning, November 25th, has to be the final day of the 72th Ghent six. Official name sounds totally different: Lotto z6sdaagse Vlaanderen Gent. While the U23 riders just started their final Madison (240 laps).

This circa 45 minutes race give us some time to look back on a carrier of one of the most famous person in the six days circus. Although he is not a rider, a lot of people know of this man. He became famous when he let his mo grow. Joop Zijlaard made his appearance in the derny world in 1970. We will see the 69 year old Rotterdam citizen for the last time in a race this afternoon. In his last motor paced race he will try to win the final later this afternoon. Who with? I’ll bet you it will be Iljo or Glenn. The list of races he won is long, 9 European titles, 30 times champion of the Netherlands and even 3 Belgian ones.

At the moment we’re half way the U23 race and still the Czech and German team leading by one lap. Five other teams are only one lap down, so everything is still possible. But I must admit that Kraus-Rugovac and Hesslich-Horstmann control the race completely. The points leaders, French couple, Boudot-Barbeau really need to take a lap to win this race. If they can manage this, it almost guarantee them the first place, they have 1OOpts, the Czechs 38 and the Germans only 16pts. Scary moments with ten laps to go, when the yellow jersey came down. Fortunately they could continue the race. The stage was finally won by Germans Wotschke-Pirius. The final winners of the U23 six days are the Czech riders:

1 Jan Kraus – Denis Rugovac (40pts) 2 Nico Hesslich – Samuel Horstmann (17pts) 3 Jonas Rickaert – Otto Vergaerde (-1 lap / 88pts)

In the pro six, four teams start the final session in the same lap, O’Shea-Keisse (383pts), De Ketele-Van Hoecke (379pts), Dillier-Bartko (266pts) and Hester-Hansen (230pts). So it will be either taking a lot of points or more important a lap. And the fight for the points started immediately, Iljo and Glenn took 20 points and that was 8 more than the Belgian World champions. The following race was a missing out with a final sprint between Keisse and Van Hoecke. And once again O’Shea- Keisse are the winners.

The fastest lap was won by “the Swiss Bullet” Tristan Marguet with his fellow countryman Franco Marvulli. And guess won the first heat behind the derny…..yes Iljo Keisse with motor pacer Joop Zijlaard.

It is now waiting for the final Madison!