Mark Cavendish and Peter Kennaugh brought the house down at Six Day London on Thursday evening with their first Madison win of the week to stay in overall contention.

Three laps down in the standings going into the last race of the night, the Manx pair took a lap and won the final sprint to move to within one lap, and two points ahead, of leaders Callum Scotson and Cameron Meyer of Australia.

Cavendish had earlier suffered another mechanical problem in his 40-lap Derny heat, his foot again unclipping from the pedal resulting in him losing a lap and finishing last, fuelling the fires for a stellar Madison performance.

’It’s difficult to try and win here with the best Madison and Six Day riders,’ Cavendish admitted.

’This is Pete’s first Six Day so we can’t really think about the overall, we just have to concentrate on trying to win what we want to win.

’Pete was great today, he really gritted his teeth in that last race and that’s what you need to be a Six Day rider.’

Kennaugh admitted he was feeling the effects of the frantic pace over the opening three days but was delighted to get his first professional Six Day race win.

’It’s been a long night to be honest, I was average in the first chase then I really struggled in the points race â?? I just didn’t feel on top of my game at all,’ he said.

’It’s the third night so I was starting to wonder if I was going to get a win. Cav’s picked one up on his own in the first two nights and I’m still trying to get to grips with it all but it feels amazing to get that first win.’

The shorter of the night’s two Madisons exploded from the gun with the Manxmen gaining a lap in the opening stages alongside Dutchmen Yoeri Havik and Roy Pieters, as well as overnight leaders Marc Hester and Casper Hester of Denmark.

Cavendish and Kennaugh then took a single point in the first sprint to move into the race lead and that was secured by a lengthy final attack to guarantee taking the final sprint.

They are fifth in the team elimination standings, The pair are fifth at the half-way point in the contest, which ends on Sunday.

In the Under-21 contest, Matt Draper is currently ninth with England’s Nick Cooper and Conor Davies 11th with James Tillett of Wales. Draper/Cooper were fourth in Thursday’s 40km Madison.