Sylvain Chavanel, riding for Omega-Pharma-Quickstep, became the first French winner of the Driedaagse De Panne with a dominating performance in the final time trial.
The French rider’s time of 17:49:35 beat the second fastest time by almost four seconds over the flat, 9.13-mile (14.7-km) course.
Chavanel had been at or near the front through most of the three-day event, leading the chases and joining the major moves. This kept him in striking distance for the final stage.
“First of all I am super happy with this victory,” Chavanel told velonation.com. “This year I hadn’t won until now, and a lot of our riders have already won. It was a little disappointing that I was riding well but unable to win a race.
“I am also happy because this victory came in a time trial,” he continued. “I worked a lot during the winter on the time trial because, in the past, I was a three-time French champion time triallist. I used to be a good rider for the time trial, but in the last year, because of my back problem, I wasn’t able to perform well.
“This winter I worked a lot on my position with the team staff and Specialized [bike manufacturer] staff, and now we begin to see some results. I was fourth in Argentina, sixth in the Stage 1 Paris-Nice time trial, so I am reaching my objectives with my time-trial bike.”
Vacansoliel’s Lieuwe Westra took second in General Classification with a time of 17:53:12. Westra was tied with Chavanel coming into the final stage; the Dutch rider, though 13 seconds quicker than third-placed Svein Tuft of GreenEdge, simply wasn’t having as good a day as Chavanel.
Maciej Bodnar of Liquigas-Cannondale came home 19 seconds down, good enough for fifth in the stage and third overall.
Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff, who had held the leader’s jersey for two days, couldn’t time trial as well as he could sprint; at 1:19 behind the leader, he dropped from the top ten.
None of the local teams managed to make the top 10. The new Australian team GreenEdge, got three riders into the top 10, matching superteam Omega Pharma-Quickstep.
Kristoff Kept Lead After Stage 3a
