Iljo Keisse (Chocolade-Jacques) finishes third behind Tom Boonen (Quick.Step-Innergetic) at the 60th Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne in Belgium on March 4, 2007. The podium finish in a major Belgian road race gives the track specialist hopes for more big results on the road.(Image credit: Luc Claessen)
Iljo Keisse celebrates a win in one of the night's Madison races.(Image credit: www.ispaphoto.com)
Track rider Iljo Keisse may ride on the road and join Quick Step for the coming season. The Belgian team's manager Patrick Lefevere confirmed that the two have already had discussions.
"His manager asked me for an interview. I guess this will happen next week,”, Lefevere told nieuwsblad.be. "Wouter Weylandt urged me to sign his training mate. I currently have 26 riders under contract, so I have some space. Since the deal with Alberto Contador was off, I was not planning to take anyone else, but I have already talked with Keisse. "
Keisse, 26, is currently riding as an elite without contract for team Sacy-Deschacht. He was fired by Topsport-Vlaanderen in January, after testing positive for cathine and hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) at the 2008 Gent Six Day race. The charges were recently dismissed, with the Belgian cycling federation finding there was insufficient scientific evidence that he purposefully used doping products.
Keisse and his racing partner, German Roger Kluge, currently lead at the half-way mark of the Six Days of Gent.
Most of Keisse's experience is on the track, but he has also ridden on the road. He finished sixth overall in the Tour of Britain in 2006 and third in Belgium's Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne in 2007.
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