Cavendish and Viviani race against former teammate in ‘Merci Iljooo’ send-off at packed Gent velodrome
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Remco Evenepoel and Iljo Keisse with Evenepoel's gift, a photo of their last race together(Image credit: Getty)
Fireworks helped contribute to the Merci Iljoo atmosphere(Image credit: Getty)
Mark Cavendish in action during the Merci Iljoo event(Image credit: Getty)
The Merci Iljoo lineup(Image credit: Getty)
The celebrations lasted a full evening(Image credit: Getty)
Iljo Keisse rides with his children during the Merci Iljoo event(Image credit: Getty)
A spectacular send-off event in Gent’s 't Kuipke velodrome for retiring QuickStep-AlphaVinyl racer Iljo Keisse saw World Champion Remco Evenepoel pay a handsome tribute to his Belgian teammate as Mark Cavendish and Elia Viviani rode for an International team against Keisse' Belgian squad in a farewell Omnium race.
“He taught me everything,” Evenepoel said at the ‘Merci Iljooo’ event, also attended by former top racer Tom Boonen and soon-to-retire Philippe Gilbert along with a sellout crowd of some 6,000 fans.
A winner of no less than 28 Six-Day events in his lengthy career, Keisse, 39, was crowned the ‘Emperor of ‘t Kuipke’ in a symbolic ceremony as part of the sendoff.
Mark Cavendish, Elia Viviani and Niki Terpstra all took part in the event itself, although Filippo Ganna was a last-minute ‘DNS’ because of an unexpected change in schedule for an eye surgery operation.
Keisse said he felt a little nervous before the event, saying that “it’s not normal for a bike rider of my level to receive this kind of farewell.” He later described it as “the best day of my career.”
Evenepoel brought Keisse a large photo of the two racing together in their last road race, Binche-Chimay-Binche, calling it “a present for my father. He did everything for me in my first year and taught me everything, on and off the bike.”
Boonen, also a former teammate, called Keisse “my general, that I always listened to.”
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As Het Nieuwsblad reported, Boonen also recollected how the two were “alone on a mountain in Andorra when Wouter Weylandt died in an accident. We shared all the emotions. We have been through a lot together.”
The final moments of the send-off saw Keisse do a lap of honour of ‘t Kuipke with his sons, Jules and René.
The 39-year-old is set to become part of the team management at QuickStep-AlphaVinyl and will start in his new directeur sportif position at their training camp in December in Spain.
As for the race gear from the final celebration, that will be sold at auction with all proceeds going to the 'De Warmste Week', an pre-Christmas event in Belgium that raises money for multiple charities.
Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
