Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish will ride together at the Ghent Six Day this November, with the 2012 Tour de France champion describing it as the logical place to end his career.
Off the back of their successful Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where Wiggins won his fifth gold medal and Cavendish a silver, the pair will return to the track for the iconic race.
Born in Ghent in 1980, Wiggins remembers the first cycling race he watched was the Ghent Six Day in 1986 and says it is a great way to bring the curtain down on his career.
“As far as I can remember the Gent Six Day in 1986 was the first race I ever saw,” Wiggins says, quoted on Sport.be. “When I was 19 I drove myself there for the first time, so the circle is complete when I my last ride.
“There’s so much nostalgia in the Kuipke [velodrome: [Eddy] Merckx, [Patrick] Sercu and all the greats of the slopes. [For that] reason it is logical that Ghent will be the end for me.”
Wiggins rode the Six Day first in 2003, winning with Matthew Gilmore. Cavendish, meanwhile, just missed out on victory when riding with Iljo Keisse in 2014.
“It’s always great to ride a historic event such as the Ghent Six Day, but together with Brad, as reigning world [Madison] champions and in his farewell event, it will be something very special,” says Cavendish
“After my narrow second with Iljo two years ago, a victory would be the perfect way to top off my association with Brad on the bike.”
The Ghent Six Day runs from November 15 until November 20 at the Kuipke velodrome.
