Cycling stars Mark Cavendish and Peter Kennaugh will team up this week to tackle the Six Day London track event.

The annual event kicks off in earnest today (Tuesday) and takes place at the Lee Valley VeloPark in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Not since Tony Gowland teamed up with Belgium’s Patrick Sercu in 1972 has a Briton won the event outright, with the competition not being held between 1981 and 2014.

The only other British winner since the event was formed in 1923 was Sydney Cozens who claimed glory with Dutchman Piet van Kempen in 1934, although Cav went close last year when claiming silver alongside Bradley Wiggins.

The Six Day is a multi-discipline event which sees riders tackle a variety of events such as the Madison, keirin, time trial and points race.

While Cav was second last year, Kennaugh will be making his Six Day debut this week but he has happy memories of the Lee Valley Velo Park, having claimed a memorable Olympic gold at the venue during the 2012 London Games.

The duo won’t be the only Manx interest in the event though, as Conor Davies is competing in the Under-23 Talent Cup contest, riding with James Tillet of Wales, while Matt Draper is also due to take part.

The 2017 event begins this evening (Tuesday) and continues every evening this week until Sunday.