Chavanel powers to overall victory in De Panne

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Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma - QuickStep) claimed back-to-back overall victories at the Three Days of De Panne, winning the final stage individual time trial in a time of 18:02.69.

Needing just 11 seconds to move into the overall lead, Chavanel was nine seconds up on the time of the previous best marker, Anton Vorobyev (Katusha) at the first time check, with the trend continuing throughout the 14.75km course.

The Frenchman obliterated the time of Vorobyev by 19 seconds with the Russian slotting into second place on the stage, followed by Dutch time trial champion Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) in third at 21 seconds.

The result was identical to that of last year where Chavanel stole the overall lead from Alexander Kristoff (Katusha). This time around, the result was even more emphatic, with the Omega Pharma-QuickStep rider finishing 22 seconds ahead of Kristoff, who had earlier won Stage 3a.

Eleventh man out of the start house, Jens Mouris (Orica GreenEdge) set the early best time of 18:37 before Vorobyev (Katusha) kicked 16 seconds into the Dutchman's effort with a blistering ride over the second part of the course.

Mouris' teammate, Australian ITT Champion Luke Durbridge, seventh in the stage last year, looked as though he was on track to take over the lead but lost ground late to clock 18:37, and slot into third place on the standings. Durbridge too was in for a repeat performance, finishing seventh on GC, as he had in 2012.

Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) stormed home to move into second place in a time of 18:23 with the focus turning to defending champion, Chavanel who was about to roll down the start ramp.

Chavanel's teammate, Niki Terpstra meanwhile was already out on course, but while in good form, could not match the time of the Frenchman, and finished in fifth place earning him third overall. The Belgian outfit's efforts in working for the general classification over the three days paying serious dividends, with four riders finishing in the top 10 - Guillaume Van Keirsbulck and Mark Cavendish ninth and 10th respectively.

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