Alex Rasmussen And Michael Mørkøv Lead in Ghent After Day 1

Team Saxo Bank’s World Champions, Alex Rasmussen and Michael Mørkøv succeeded in taking the lead of the Six Days race in Ghent, Belgium on the first night of racing. Favorites Bruno Risi and Franco Marvulli finished second and Iljo Keisse with teammate Roger Kluge finishing third. All three couples are on the same amount of laps but the Danes lead on points.

“We were ahead of things all evening. It took us a while though to get to know the track and it cost us the victory in our favorite discipline in which we were beaten by the Swiss by 0.01 sec. Although we missed out on this single victory the track seemed tailor-made for us. Every evening, we have two time trials to look forward to and many points to win.

Towards the end of the night, we were both excited about the short track and that is a bit of a redemption for us. After all, we took our share of wins tonight”, says a delighted Michael Mørkøv after the first day in Ghent.

1. Alex Rasmussen/Michael Mørkøv (Den) 50 point

2. Bruno Risi/Franco Marvulli (Sch) 34

3. Iljo Keisse/Roger Kluge (Bel/Hol) 29

4. Kenny De Ketele/Robert Bartko (Bel/Hol) 11

1 lap behind:

5. Danny Stam/Leif Lampater (Hol) 18

6. Jeff Vermeulen/Peter Schep (Hol) 10

2 laps behind:

7. Alexander Aeschbach/Tristan Marguet (Sch) 10

8. Leon van Bon/Andreas Muller (Hol) 10

9. Glenn O’Shea/Leigh Howard (Aus) 6

4 laps behind

10. Gert-Jan Jonkman/Marc Hester (Hol/Den) 0

11. Ingmar De Poortere/Nicky Cocquyt (Bel) 0

6 laps behind

12. Steven De Neef/Steve Schets (Bel) 2

Tags: Alex Rasmussen, Belgium, Bruno Risi, Danny Stam, Iljo Keisse, Kenny de Ketele, Leif Lampater, Marc Hester, Michael Morkov, Michael Mørkøv, Robert Bartko, Roger Kluge, Team Saxo Bank