Philippe Gilbert to ride the Ghent Six Days with individual pursuit match
The new UCI Road World Champion, Philippe Gilbert of Team BMC will be seen in action at the Ghent Six Days as announced by the race organisers.
After beating all the top cyclists in road racing, the Belgian will now divert his attention at the six-day track cycling race held annually in Ghent, Belgium.
Race Organiser Patrick Sercu was delighted to have the newly crowned Road World Champion to start the race which will without a question attract a significant number of audiences.
"We cannot dream better than a Belgian world champion to open our Six Days," Sercu explained.
"Philippe has already been able to enjoy the atmosphere here last year and it has clearly pleased him”.
“Ghent gets to see for the first time the rainbow jersey in action on our soil - a perfect start for our 90th anniversary edition".
Patrick himself is a former six-day rider and also holds the world record for winning the race for a maximum number of 11 times.
He dominated during the 1965, 1967, 1970-73, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1980 and 1981 editions of the competition.
The Six Days of Ghent is amongst the oldest track cycling races with its first edition going back to 1922.
The race is held every year and several track and road cyclists from across the globe participate in the annual event.
It is mostly dominated by the Belgian riders but cyclists from other European countries including Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark have also succeeded in securing the top spot.
Death of the Spanish rider, Isaac Galvez marred the 2006 edition of the contest after he went sailing into a barrier outside of the track and could not even make it to the hospital.
Philippe Gilbert will ride in a 3 kilometre individual pursuit against his countryman Gianni Meersman of Team Lotto Belisol on the inaugural night on Tuesday, November 20, 2012.
The Belgian is definitely more comfortable at road racing and enjoys it more than anything else, however; it will not be his first participation off the road.
He took part in a similar sort of race back in 2011 where he managed to get through the defences of Jurgen Roelandts.
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