When he signed up to the Ghent Six-Day track meet, Mark Cavendish probably didn’t expect to have to navigate his way round a cat on day one on his way to fourth place.

How the moggy made it onto the track in the first place is unknown, but it nearly wrote itself in the history books as it came perilously close to the Manx Missile and the other riders before scrambling back over the railings.

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The feline struggled to gain its footing on the slippery track, sliding down towards the racing line, before a near miss with the rider in the blue jersey prompts him to make a bid for safety.

Back in 2013, Cycling Weekly counted down the top-ten dogs in cycling, which begs the question as to the best cat cameos in the sport?

Take a look at the actual action from the first day in Ghent in our gallery, where Cavendish and Omega Pharma-Quick-Step teammate Iljo Keisse took second place in the Madison, team elimination and points race.