Organizers of the Ghent Six Day have announced that a special event will be held during this year's race in honor of 11-time winner Patrick Selcuk. This "Memorial Selcuk" will add an hour of Madison to the program. The typical grand finale was a specialty of Selcuk's, who died in April at age 74.

Race also announced that the city has extended its agreement with Race for another six years.

Six Day Madison events typically last 45 minutes or less, with riders competing in two "chases" per night, along with other events such as the Dorney Race, Points Race, and Elimination Race. On the final day, there will be one Madison, usually 60 minutes long, to determine the overall winner.

The Memorial Selcu takes place on the fourth day (November 15), with a second one-hour Madison on the sixth day.

The 79th edition of the race, known in Belgium as the Lot Zesderges Fraunderen Gent, will take place from November 12-17 and will reunite former teammates Mark Cavendish and Iljo Keisse as team number two. Caisse, who hails from Ghent, will be looking for his eighth title in this race.

Cavendish and Caisse won the race together in 2014, and the Manxman won again in 2016 with Bradley Wiggins.

The festivities will also include a record attempt by Victor Kampenaerts, who will attempt to break the 5 km record set by Dirk Baerts in 1981 (0:6:13.56).

In the pairs, Kenny de Ketele, also from Ghent, will be paired with Rob Gee. In addition to the two former European champions, current world champions Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt will wear number 1 and will be joined by Jasper de Baist and Tosh van der Sande from Lotto Soudal.

Moreno de Paue will compete in the last race of his career before retiring after Ghent Six Day. He will be paired with Gerben Theisen. Joeri Havik of the Netherlands and Jan-Willem van Schip, fresh off his Madison win at the UCI Track World Cup in Minsk, will also compete.

Others include: Wim Stroettinga/Lindsay de Vilder, Otto Felgaerde/Jules Hester, Fabio van den Bossche/Marc Hester, Roy Peters/Jonas Rickert