Bradley Wiggins at full speed(Image credit: Swpix)
Iljo Keisse celebrates his sixth win in Gent.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Kenny de Ketele, Gijs Van Hoecke, Michael Morkov, Iljo Keisse and son, Japser de Buyst and Otto Ergaerde(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Iljo Keisse and Michael Morkov close up(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins won the Madison World Championship in 2008(Image credit: Stephen McMahon)
Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain)(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain)(Image credit: Guy Swarbrick)
Bradley Wiggins recently hinted he may end his track racing career at the 2016 Gent Six next winter and this year's winner Iljo Keisse has quickly put up his hand to ride with the Briton.
Keisse won this year's Gent Six with Denmark's Michael Markov after a fierce battle in the final Madison on Sunday. Despite security risks in Belgium following the Paris attacks, the velodrome was packed with fans each night and went ahead without incident.
Keisse first offered to ride with Wiggins back in 2012 after the Briton hinted at the idea following his 2012 Tour de France and Olympic success. Wiggins rode the Gent Six in 1999, 2003 and 2007 and is former Madison world champion with Mark Cavendish. He was born in the Belgian city because his father Gary was part of the Six Day circuit.
Wiggins congratulated Keisse via his Instagram account after posting a photo of him with Rob Hayles at the 1999 Ghent Six. Wiggins was just 19 at the time and had just joined the Great Britain track team.
Completing the circle
Wiggins ended his career on the road with Team Sky after riding Paris-Roubaix in April. He is currently training for the team pursuit on the track but will has already revealed he will ride the Dubai Tour and the Tour of California in 2016 as he prepares for the Track World Championships and helps promote his Wiggins team and helps young British riders.
"I'm fully in the track zone now, so I'm not really thinking about retirement, I'm just enjoying it at the moment," Wiggins recently told The Telegraph newspaper in an interview.
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"The likelihood is that I'll retire in December 2016, rather than stop in Rio I'd like to come back and do events like the Revolution Series, the London Six and the Gent Six Day. I'd like to go back to Ghent because it will be 18 years since I first rode it, so I'd love to go back – I'd be completing the circle if you like."
"It's been refreshing coming back to the track. I think with the road I was getting to the stage where I was thinking 'this is my last Paris-Nice, my last Tour of Flanders' and it started to feel a little mundane, sort of clock watching. It felt like I was waiting to check out of work at five o'clock, whereas with this – the track – I'm just enjoying it. I was going to stop after Rio, but now I think I'd just love to carry on doing events throughout the winter."
Keisse also hinted that his Etixx-Quickstep teammate Tom Boonen could end his career at a Six Day but suggested he rides on the Rotterdam track, which is easier than the tight 166m Ghent track.
