The 2024 edition of the famous track event, the Gent Six, kicks off this week, with world road champion Lotte Kopecky and two-time reigning Gent Six champions Lindsay De Vylder and Robbe Ghys headlining at 't Kuipke Velodrome.
The six-day event runs from Tuesday, November 12 to Sunday, November 17 as De Vylder and Ghys aim to be the first rider pairing to win three years in succession. Ghys, meanwhile, has won every edition since 2019 and so is going for a fifth personal victory.
"We are not the top favourite," De Vylder told Sporza ahead of the event, which runs for the 83rd time this year. "In recent weeks, I've had confirmation during training that my World Cup form is still there. I'm really looking forward to riding in Gent in this condition.
"Winning won't be a given this year, but we'll give it a good fight. I hope that three in a row is possible for me. For Robbe, it would even be five in a row."
2023 podium finishers Yoeri Havik, Jan-Willem van Schip, Fabio Van den Bossche and Jules Hesters will all be doing battle once again this time around, though they'll be racing in different pairings than last year.
Van den Bossche will be partnered with Frenchman Benjamin Thomas, the Cofidis racer who this year became Olympic champion in the omnium.
"In the past few years, Fabio Van den Bossche has made it difficult for us, and with Benjamin Thomas, he now has a teammate who is a bit 'out of league'," De Vylder said.
"Thomas is the Olympic, world and European champion. He's just about the best track cyclist of our generation. They are therefore the top favourites.
"I also look at Jules Hesters. He has a great partner in Aaron Gate. That man is adored on the track. And you can never write off Yoeri Havik, just like Roger Kluge, so there are a lot of big names."
Ghys is currently level on consecutive wins with track legend Patrick Sercu, who also won the Gent Six four times in a row in the 1970s. The Belgian, who regularly raced with Eddy Merckx, is the Gent Six record holder with 11 career victories.
Kopecky, who ended this season as the top-ranked women's racer on the road with wins at the Worlds, Paris-Roubaix, Strade Bianche and Tour of Britain, headlines the women's event.
The Belgian, a world, European and national champion in multiple disciplines on the track, will be among the top favourites for glory in Gent. She'll face off against European U23 madison champion Katrijn De Clercq and Olympic madison bronze medallist Lisa van Belle, plus Hélène Hesters and Lani Wittevrongel.
