Pim Ligthart and Michael Mørkøv have won the Amsterdam Six after a dramatic battle in the final minutes of last night’s concluding race. The Omega Pharma-Quick Step duo Iljo Keisse and Niki Terpstra finished in second place and the Dutch pair Wim Stroetinga and Peter Schep came in third. “Winning so close to home, on the track where I grew up, is fantastic. Of course I want to win everywhere but winning here is a dream come true,” a delighted Ligthart said.
In the first event of the night last year's winners Iljo Keisse and Niki Terpstra passed the 200-points mark and gained a bonus lap. It would take their opponents untill the very last race of the evening to win that lap back. The madison race of one hour plus 50 laps was controlled by Keisse and Terpstra. Halfway into the race they had countered several attacks and were still leading by one lap.
Kenny de Ketele and Gijs van Hoecke, the 2012 world champions in this event, had one plan. "Attack, attack, attack," said De Ketele. And they did. After Mørkøv and Ligthart took the lead with only eight minutes on the clock they attacked the field and took a lap. In a very exciting race time ticked away in favour of the Belgian pair.
But Keisse and Terpstra, who won the Amsterdam Six last year, were not planning to lose that easily. With only 30 laps on the board Terpstra attacked and managed to lap the field. Victory seemed to be very close for the Dutch-Belgian Omega Pharma-Quick Step pair untill Mørkøv and Ligthart launched an all-or-nothing attack. “They are our main adversaries,” Terpstra had said before the start. “We'll be looking at them.”
With less than 20 laps to go Ligthart increased the pace. Keisse and Terpstra tried to neutralize the attack but they had nothing left after a very hard six days. “I never thought we were going to make it,” Ligthart said. “We had half a lap but didn't get any further than that for a while. I thought we were going to fail but am very happy we didn't.” Mørkøv added: “I was not all sure that we were going to take that lap so close to the finish. We were struggling for a while and Terpstra and Keisse were very strong but we made it.”
The 20th edition of the Amsterdam Six is the first of the indoor track season. "I had a great partner in Michael." Ligthart concluded. “He came up to me in the Circuit Franco-Belge (Tour de l'Eurometropole) saying he was riding with me. I hope Michael will be in Rotterdam too in January and that we'll be able to do it again.”
Amsterdam Six, final standings:
1, Michael Mørkøv (DEN) / Pim Ligthart (NED) 304 points
2, Iljo Keisse (BEL) / Niki Terpstra (NED) 228
3, Wim Stroetinga (NED) / Peter Schep (NED) at 1 lap, 307
4, Gijs Van Hoecke (BEL) / Kenny De Ketele (BEL) at 1 lap, 300
5, Yoeri Havik (NED) / Nick Stöpler (NED) at 2 laps, 199
6, Robert Bartko (GER) / Jens Mouris (NED) at 4 laps, 142
7, Barry Markus (NED) / Léon van Bon (NED) at 14 laps, 101
8, Michael Vingerling (NED) / Geert-Jan Jonkman (NED) at 17 laps, 116
9, Melvin Boskamp (NED) / Wesley Kreder (NED) at 20 laps, 107
10, Cyrille Thièry (SUI) / Loïc Perizzolo (SUI) at 21 laps, 94
11, Nolan Hoffmann (RSA) / Marc Hester (DEN) at 23 laps, 178
12, Morgan Kneisky (FRA) / Roy Pieters (NED) at 25 laps, 88
13, Jos Pronk (NED) / Leif Lampater (GER) at 29 laps, 131