From November 18 to 23, the Ghent Six Days will return, known worldwide as the Lotto Z6sdaagse Vlaanderen-Gent, a race that beyond its competitive aspect, preserves all the tradition and significance of track cycling. The list of participants for this spectacle is almost completely defined, and after confirming Lindsay De Vylder, Fabio Van den Bossche and Jules Hesters who announced their presence last month, the organization has announced the presence of other top athletes.

There will be the Olympic Omnium champion and reigning champion Benjamin Thomas, who won last year alongside Fabio Van den Bossche. The thirty-year-old Frenchman is considered one of the most versatile track cyclists. In addition to the Paris Olympic title, he has already won five world championships in Omnium, Madison, and points race. Last year he also won the fifth stage of the Giro d'Italia. For women, the return to competition of Lotte Kopecky is confirmed. The former world champion had been forced to end her season early due to her accident at the Tour d'Ardèche on September 11, where she had suffered a vertebral fracture. The Belgian champion had also given up the World Track Championships in Chile, but had said she would not miss the Ghent Six Days. The women's races will take place on Friday, November 21 and Saturday, November 22 and Kopecky, winner of the last three editions, will be present along with eleven other track specialists, including Shari Bossuyt, Katrijn De Clercq, Luca Vierstraete and Marith Vanhov.

In the men's race, the organizers have announced that Lindsay De Vylder and Fabio Van den Bossche, recently crowned world Madison champions in Santiago, will form a pair. The Lotto Z6sdaagse Vlaanderen-Gent has also organized a special moment: "Ciao Elia", a farewell to our champion Elia Viviani, who will definitively step off the bike at the end of the Ghent Six Days.

Elia Viviani will be paired with his Lotto teammate Jasper De Buyst, another important name in the Ghent track who will accompany the Venetian in his last race. Jules Hesters will then have Yoeri Havik as his partner, while Dutch rider Vincent Hoppezak will pair with his compatriot Yanne Dorenbos.

On the track, Viviani is considered a true phenomenon: Olympic Omnium champion in Rio in 2016, he also won bronze in the same discipline in Tokyo in 2021, and at the Paris 2024 Games, he won silver in the Madison with Simone Consonni. In 2018, Viviani had won the Ghent Six Days, and the Kuipke audience hopes to see the Italian raise his arms once again in one of track cycling's symbolic venues. Tickets are almost completely sold out - for the days of November 20, 21, 22, and 23, no tickets are available, sales were closed due to full capacity at the end of September, while a few tickets are still available for the days of November 18 and 19.