It's a short flat time trial to finish the De Panne Tour and whilst the GC podium seems locked in, there is plenty to fight for including the stage win.
Early on plenty of decent time triallists were mixed in with the also rans which included well known CTour chrono men Haijun Ma
and Ian Stannard
Who along with Lieuwe Westra
and
Artem Ovechkin
set the best opening times.
Name
1st check
Final Time
Stannard
7.41
12.14
Ma
7.43
12.17
Westra
7.48
12.24
Ovechkin
7.47
12.26
None of these four are going to finish high on GC having been dropped on one of the previous stages, the battle later on is between those just behind the lead three on GC (Albert, Coyot and Nolf).
Former Gazzeta Dello Sport hard man Rick Flens
for example is the first chrono specialist out of this bunch.
Other riders within this group expected to deliver a useful time included Lars Boom
and
Andrew Tennant
All three riders starting 6.15 back from Albert but with a great shot of a high top 10 GC placing and they had favourable conditions with the wind relatively low compared to the early starters. It was Boom who edged out Flens on hundredths of a second who would set the fastest time. The Rapha Condor boys not quite able to live with the Dutch riders 4 seconds slower.
Name
1st check
Final Time
Boom
7.32
12.10
Flens
7.32
12.10
Stannard
7.41
12.14
Tennant
7.33
12.14
Ma
7.43
12.17
The likes of Roger Kluge
and Thor Hushovd
had sneaked out some bonifications on previous stages.
Kluge had gained 4 seconds and is a pretty useful rider against the clock but he disappointed slightly clocking 12.26 which placed him well below Tennant. He even moved below Johan Lindgren
who had clocked 12.21 from part of the Flens/Boom group of riders.
Hushovd meanwhile had 12 seconds from his second place on stage two, he could only clock 12.28 which moved him below Tennant also by three seconds on the overall. The Norwegian though did get enough to take the outright win in the points competition to make up for failure to defend his overall title.
This award would go to Niels Albert
who may be a poor chrono man but made the superb opening stage attack to win the De Panne Tour.
Coyot and Nolf comfortably defended their podium places with the strong time triallists making up the rest of the top 10.
