Bodnar wins stage 3b, Van Keirsbulck takes overall at Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde
Young Belgian rides solid final-stage time trial to overall win in De Panne
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Maciej Bodnar won stage 3b of the Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde Thursday in De Panne, Belgium. Bodnar (Cannondale) set a time of 17:51 in the 14.3-kilometer time-trial finale of the three-day race.
Jan Barta (NetApp-Endura) was second, three seconds adrift of Bodnar’s mark. David Boucher (FDJ.fr) was third, at six seconds.
“I’m really proud of this victory and also a little surprised,” Bodnar said in a press release. “For a rider like me it’s not usual to stay on the highest stage of the podium, and when it happens, it’s always awesome. We’re in Belgium to help [teammate Peter] Sagan, and we’re happy to do this, but in De Panne we had a chance to search for some personal glory and I took it.”
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) rode a solid time trial to the overall win, taking the leader’s jersey from teammate Gert Steegmans (Omega Pharma) on the pancake-flat course in western Flanders.
Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEdge) set the fast time at the intermediate split, upending Kristijan Koren’s (Cannondale) mark at the midway point. Van Keirsbulck set a time just four seconds slower than the Australian, good for second on the road. The Australian faded over the technical second half of the course, however, leaving the stage win to Bodnar and the overall to Van Keirsbulck.
Durbridge finished second overall, at seven seconds, and Steegmans dropped to third, at eight seconds.
Pre-race favorite Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma) had difficulty with his left pedal coming off the start ramp and lost his chance at the stage and overall wins.
“I’m super happy,” Van Keirsbulck said in a press release. “It’s something unexpected. In the team we had really strong riders like Steegmans and Terpstra, so I wasn’t really thinking about the classification. But today I said to myself to try 100 percent and see what could have happened. At the end of the race I was at the team bus and they called me to go to the podium. It was a great feeling.”
Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) won the morning’s stage 3a in a bunch sprint.