Mark Cavendish continued his winning streak at the London 6-day track event at the Lee Valley Velodrome in the British capital on Thursday night, winning both the 40-lap derny event and the team elimination race with partner Owain Doull The team won both the 40-lap derny event and the team elimination race with his partner Owain Doull.
However, it was the winning pair No. 5, Elia Viviani and Simone Consonni, who took the win, with Viviani winning the 7.5 km points race and finishing second in the elimination race behind Cavendish and Doole.
Cavendish fended off the only two riders who could keep up with him, Oliver Wolf of Denmark and Maximilian Bayer of Germany, but confessed after the race that he could not hear the final lap bell over the noise of the crowd.
"I was thinking, 'Here it comes, here it comes,' and all of a sudden the finish line came," he said in a video on Six Day London's Twitter feed.
"I don't know what's going to happen to me in the next race. Six Day is like a Grand Tour, everything you do affects you. But I'm really happy," Cavendish smiled.
Sprint star Caleb Yuan won the second and final Dagny race of the night.
But arguably the race of the night occurred in the closing laps of the elimination race when Viviani and Cavendish faced off as the last two teams. Viviani led until the last lap, when Cavendish took the lead on the last curve and won by a body.
"I expected Cavendish to sprint, but my legs were completely done and Cavendish jumped me on the line.
"It's never good to lose to Cav, but I spoke to him right after the race and it's great that he's back at this level and in good condition.
"Next year is another big year and maybe we can have another sprint showdown on the road. Right?" Viviani said.
Viviani and Conssoni now lead Cavendish and Doull, who have moved into second place, by 12 points. Frenchmen Coquard and Grondin, who were the previous leaders, have dropped to fourth, while Dutchmen Wim Stroettinga and Joeri Havik remain in third place.
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