Mark Cavendish and Peter Kennaugh brought the house down at Six Day London 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 Brits 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.
Cavendish had earlier suffered another mechanical problem in his 40-lap derny heat, his foot again unclipping from the pedal which resulted in him losing a lap but fuelled 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.
“It’s Pete’s first Six Day so we can’t really think about the overall we just have to think about 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 — 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.”
Day 3 begun with the 45-minute Madison Chase and it was Kenny de Ketele and Moreno de Pauw who hit back from a relatively disappointing Day 2 to start Thursday with a bang - one of four teams to take a lap before going on to win the final sprint for the line.
The night’s first 40-lap derny heat saw Yoeri Havik continue the form that helped him and Roy Pieters win Day 2’s closing Madison as he won the race that saw Cavendish finish last.
Three more teams then had their shot at points in the two-lap Madison time trial but it was overnight leaders Marc Hester and Casper Pedersen who remained in the hotseat as no-one could top their effort from night two.
And there was more Danish success in the team elimination as Casper von Folsach and Niklas Larsen continued their impressive form with another win - much to the shock of the young duo.
“It’s quite surprising to be honest. This is the first time we targeted this event and I think it’s what you call a lucky punch,” said von Folsach.
After the Danish dominance it was time for the home crowd to have something to cheer about as they celebrated back-to-back-to-back British wins.
It was Mark Stewart who got the ball rolling with a supreme points race performance to rack up 43 points, thanks in large part to a win in the final sprint, to beat de Ketele and Pedersen into second and third place, respectively.
“I thought I’d try and go for it and take the first sprint, not really think about it and use the legs and it worked,” he admitted.
But the Brits were not done there and Chris Latham staged a huge attack in the final two laps of the second 40-lap derny race to pip countryman and Six Day London 2015 teammate Ollie Wood into second place - Scotson finishing third to put the Australian team back into the overall lead heading into the final race of the night.
And the shorter of the night’s two Madisons exploded from the gun with the Manx-men gaining a lap in the opening stages alongside Dutchmen Havik and Roy Pieters, as well as Hester and Pedersen.
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.