Vandewalle repeats as Belgian time trial champion

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Kristof Vandewalle won his third straight national time trial title. The Trek Factory Racing rider came in 15 seconds quicker than Tim Wellens (Lotto Belisol) and 16 seconds better than third-placed Pieter Serry (Omega Pharma-Quickstep).

"I am super proud of these three titles! It would have been hard to say good-bye to the jersey today. After struggling in the last weeks I am very happy with winning the national title again," Vandewalle said.

"Today the pacing and managing your energy was very important. I felt good this morning; I felt fresh. I am happy that today was a good day because I have been struggling with form lately, and I had the mental stress about whether I had good enough shape to win today."

With three laps of a technical circuit making up the 44.6km distance, Vandewalle tried to settle into a steady rhythm on the few straight, flat stretches. "This is where I thought I could make the difference," he explained. "The three laps had a lot of turns where you had to constantly attack again and again out of the corner. This cost me a lot in the last lap, it was very difficult to keep sprinting over and over again, but I kept my focus on the final kilometers to the finish where I knew I could make up time. Despite all the turns, it was a course for rouleurs; the biggest challenge was keeping your speed and tempo and to keep on pushing."

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