Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish win Ghent Six Day

By Matt Westby

Image: Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish won the Ghent Six Day

Sir Bradley Wiggins once again hinted at prolonging his cycling career after sealing a dramatic overall victory at the Ghent Six Day alongside Mark Cavendish.

The pair had looked destined to finish third on points but launched a late attack in the final Madison race and lapped the field with just five laps remaining.

It meant they won the event by a lap from runners-up Kenny De Ketele and Moreno De Pauw and third-placed Elia Viviani and Iljo Keisse.

Image: Cavendish (left) and Wiggins lapped the field late in the final race

Wiggins had intended for it to be the last outing of his career, but he said last month he may race the Six Day London in 2017 and reiterated the sentiment on Sunday.

He said: "I'm not sure yet. I just want to enjoy this moment. I have still got really good legs, so I don't just want to say, 'Yeah, that's 100 per cent it' and then make an announcement next week, but at the moment I just want to enjoy today."

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Image: Wiggins and Cavendish are the first all-British winners

Wiggins and Cavendish had led by a lap going into the final day but were pegged back by De Ketele and De Pauw, and also Viviani and Keisse, in Sunday's earlier races.

Wiggins, who also won the Ghent Six Day in 2003, said: "It's been nine years since I was last here, 13 years since I won with Matthew Gilmore and 18 since I first came here as a 19-year-old boy. I was sat in this cabin down here with my father in 1981 and I feel like, 'I was born here and this has always been a second home to me'.

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"It is always special to win here and I always said my final send-off would be to come here and race Ghent once last time, and to win it with Mark as well, after everything we have been through for the last 10 years together.

Image: Wiggins and Cavendish won for the first time as a pair

"This will be the last time we race together, for sure. Maybe not my last individually, but as a pairing, given what we have achieved together, it's incredible."

The victory was Cavendish's first at the Ghent Six Day.

He added: "Ghent Six Day is a race you dream of as a kid; it's one you watch growing up. It's one you just dream of riding, let alone getting close.

"It's a nice bookend to everything and it's pretty emotional. I think it's the first full-British pair, as world [Madison] champions."

Final Ghent Six Day standings

1 Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish, 410 points
2 Kenny De Ketele and Moreno De Pauw, 475 points +1lap
3 Elia Viviani and Iljo Keisse, 468 points +1lap
4 Callum Scotson and Cameron Meyer, 224 points +4laps
5 Lindsay De Vylder and Leif Lampater, 240 points +12laps

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