Guillaume van Keirsbulck wins Three Days of De Panne as Maciej Bodnar takes final stage
Last Updated: 03/04/14 4:42pm
Belgium's Guillaume van Keirsbulck claimed his first overall win in a stage race by triumphing at the Three Days of De Panne.
The 23-year-old Omega Pharma – Quick-Step rider clinched a seven-second victory over Luke Durbridge with a fifth-place finish in stage 3b’s individual time trial, which was won by Maciej Bodnar.
Going into the final stage, Van Keirsbulck and Durbridge had been sixth and seventh overall respectively, separated by 11 seconds, and although Durbridge (Orica-GreenEdge) was the quickest of the two on the 14.3km course, he could only take four seconds out of Van Keirsbulck's lead.
Fellow Omega Pharma – Quick-Step riders Gert Steegmans and Niki Terpstra had been placed first and third respectively ahead of the decisive test, but Steegmans was off the pace and Terpstra lost vital time when he failed to clip into his pedals on the start ramp, and both consequently fell down the standings.
Terpstra troubles
Steegmans managed to stay on the overall podium and claim third, eight seconds down, while Terpstra had to be content with fourth. Agonisingly, his 15-second final deficit to Van Keirsbulck was about the amount of time he lost trying to get his foot clipped in.
Van Keirsbulck’s victory comes a month after he finished second at the Three Days of West Flanders, also in Belgium.
Bodnar (Cannondale) won stage 3b in a time of 17min 51sec, three seconds faster than runner-up Jan Barta (NetApp-Endura) and six seconds ahead of third-placed David Boucher (FDJ).
Earlier in the day, Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) claimed his second win of the race by sprinting to victory on stage 3a ahead of Andrea Guardini (Astana) and Kenny van Hummel (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela).
