Eeckhout tops Casper in photo finish

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Nico Eeckhout of An Post-Sean Kelly won the the mass sprint of the final stage of the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, nosing out Jimmy Casper (Saur-Sojasun) in a photo finish. Third place went to FdJ's Dominique Rollin.

It was the first season win for the 40-year-old Eeckhout, who is 18 years older than overall race winner, Jesse Sergent (RadioShack).

"I didn't think I had won," said winner Eeckhout after the judges reviewed the photo finish. "Casper came from behind me quickly. It's quite nice that I succeeded."

"It's my 81st professional victory, but I'm most surprised I could return after my back injury. I have a lot of pain. Today I had a good day, but it could be the last. But even if I don't win any more this year, I'm satisfied," Eeckhout said.

RadioShack's Jesse Sergent arrived at the finish with the lead group, which had broken away early in the race, to claim the overall victory.

Sergent, a New Zealander in his first ProTour year, had won the opening time trial to take the race lead, which he never relinquished. He was joined on the final podium, as he was on the opening stage, by his RadioShack teammates, with Sebastien Rosseler second overall and Michal Kwiatkowski third.

The RadioShack team put its leaders near the front of the race early in the day to avoid being caught behind any splits on a blustery day, but Sergent said he never thought the lead group would stay clear to the end. “It’s always better to be in the front than to chase the whole day, but that was not really my intention,” said Sergent. "I never thought that we would stay in the front for 175k, but we did because Oliveira, Rosseler and Kwiatkowski worked so hard for me today. It’s unreal what they did. It’s unreal what I have now too. I just won my first stage race as a pro rider.”

Sergent may have begun the season as a relative unknown in professional road cycling, but his success is not unprecedented. After claiming the silver medal in the pursuit at the track world championships last year, he won the time trial stage in the Tour of Gila over specialists Levi Leipheimer and Dave Zabriskie.

“The people who only follow road cycling will know me soon enough now,” said Sergent. “I will still do the track and will enjoy it and will work toward the next Olympic Games, but you will see me more and more on the road. After London 2012 I will probably be a fulltime road cyclist.”

RadioShack's stay-out-of-trouble strategy pulled away a large group just 30km into the race. The leading peloton consisted of Leonardo Duque (Cofidis), Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Quick Step), David Boucher, Klaas Lodewyck, Sven Vandousselaere (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Jan Ghyselinck (HTC Highroad), Sebastien Rosseler, Michael Kwiatkowski, Nelson Santos Olivera, Jesse Sergent (RadioShack), Wouter Mol, Jens Mouris (Vacansoleil), Matthieu Ladagnous, Dominique Rollin (FDJ), Yukiya Arashiro, Sébastien Chavanel (Europcar), Jimmy Casper, Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur-Sojasun), Jarl Salomein (Topsport Vlaanderen), Bert De Backer (Skil Shimano), and Nico Eeckhout (An Post - Sean Kelly).

For much of the race, the group held a small gap, but with less than 40 km to go, the chasing peloton gave up, and the leaders pulled the gap out to three minutes and growing. Ghyselinck attacked with 20 km to go, but was caught again at the 3km marker. RadioShack kept the pace so high that a number of riders dropped off.

Further attacks followed but it came to the mass sprint, with Eeckhout and Casper crossing the finish line together.

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