Sergent heads RadioShack prologue sweep

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Jesse Sergent took his first pro win and led Team RadioShack's domination of the Driedaagse van Westvlaanderen prologue, with the US team taking all three podium places. The neo-pro from New Zealand covered the flat 7km course in 8:14, with teammates Sebastien Rosseler and Sam Bewley in second and third with the same time, 10 seconds down. Sergent also took the leader's jersey for the overall lead.

"This is my first pro victory," said Sergent. "What a feeling! This is pretty special and I am happy to give back something to the people who have believed in me.

"This morning after I checked the course I felt quite confident. It was not a technical course; there were only three corners and long straights. I could use constant power the entire time. I had a feeling I would do a good ride and I'm very happy right now!"

The US-based ProTeam thoroughly dominated the flat prologue, claiming five of the top seven places. Only Svein Tuft (SpiderTech Powered By C10, fourth) and Patrick Gretsch (HTC-Highroad, sixth) prevented a clean sweep.

The prologue parcours was comprised of seven kilometres through Middelkerke, basically a "there and back" course, ending with a 2.5km-long straight sea-side dash to the finish. The course was about as flat as might be expected on the Belgian coast.

Johan Museeuw was on hand to give his blessing to the prologue, appropriately as the race is also known as the Johan Museeuw Classic.

Bas Krauwel of Cyclingteam de Rijke was the first to take to the course, brining in a time of 9:35. NetApp's Timon Seubert was the first to break the nine-minute barrier. Sebastian Chavanel (Team Europcar) put in a good time of 8:47.

But it was RadioShack's early starter Sam Bewley who put in the best time of 8:24. The 23-year-old New Zealander, who went off first for his team, crossed the finish line at 1:58pm to start a long wait on the hot seat. Just as his time was beginning to look untouchable, teammate Michael Kwiatkowski came in only one second slower.

And then, after an hour and a half in the lead, Bewley was knocked down to second place by yet another teammate, his 22-year-old compatriot Jesse Sergent, who carved a whole 10 seconds off his time to take the lead with 8:14. Sergent's time held up, with none of the remaining riders coming close.