Devolder wins time trial title

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Stijn Devolder (Quick Step) has won the Belgian national time trial championship, becoming the first rider to hold both the road race and time trial titles at the same time.

Devolder set a time of 1:00:45.73 for the 46km course around Habay la Neuve. Sebastien Rosseler (RadioShack) was second at 40 seconds and Leif Hoste (Omega Pharma-Lotto) was third at 52 seconds.

"This is a dream come true! After having claimed the National Road Championship title, I really only focused on this race, I wanted this historic double result." Devolder said.

I competed at the Tour de Pologne but was actually thinking about today’s race and during this past week I trained really hard with my time-trial bicycle in order to leave nothing to chance. Last night I checked out the circuit with our team’s Sports Director Rik Van Slycke and this morning before the race I trained again on the track."

“It was a difficult time trial until the very last kilometre. The course was challenging and the small gap there was between me and the closest opponent never allowed me to relax. Rain made the race even harder."

The two-time Tour of Flanders winner will ride this week's Eneco Tour in Beglium and Holland as he continues to build towards the world road race and time trial championships in Australia.

"My objective is to do well and honour these two jerseys I've won. Besides, the race will pass near my home town, so that’ll be a further motivation to do the best I can.”