Farrar conquers cobbled sprint in De Panne

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Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) won the final road stage of the Three Days of De Panne in a tricky cobbled sprint into De Panne on Thursday.

Farrar was forced to sit in the wind as the peloton came off smooth roads and onto a 300 metre stretch of cobbles, but was able to come past Skil-Shimano's Robert Wagner and edge in front of the German with a final lunge at the line. Wagner's teammate Kenny Van Hummel finished third.

Luca Paolini (Acqua & Sapone) finished sixth in the sprint to defend his slim advantage in the overall classification.

It was Farrar’s first win of the season after a string of near misses. "It feels so good. The first win of the year always does," he said. "The cobbles made it hard and it was a crazy sprint with bikes bouncing all over the place. I’m an okay rider on them but it was close. The team was great and they killed themselves to make sure it came down to a sprint."

Garmin go into today’s decisive time trial with David Millar lying fourth overall, twelve seconds down. "I hope we win three races today. It would be a nice day for Garmin-Transitions," said Farrar.

The stage began in De Panne under cold but clear conditions and after five kilometres a group broke clear of the bunch. They included veteran Niko Eeckhout (An Post - Sean Kelly Team), Dieter Capelle (Verandas Willems), Aleksejs Saramotins (HTC-Columbia), Gorka Izagirre Insausti (Euskaltel – Euskadi), Bobbie Traksel (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team), Klaas Lodewyck (Topsport Vlaanderen – Mercator).

With 47 kilometres to go the gap was 45 seconds with Garmin setting the pace behind as they worked to set-up a sprint for Tyler Farrar. They received support from Paolini’s Acqua & Sapone team.

As the leader reached the village of Lombardsijde, the place where Freddy Maertens was raised, the peloton smelled blood and reduced the gap still further to 30 seconds.

Disaster struck for Cappelle when his saddle snapped off. The Belgian was forced to wait for support and was caught and passed by the bunch.

With less than 20 kilometres remaining the peloton allowed the remaining five riders to dangle off the front but, with the end in sight, Eeckhout and Traksel launched a do-or-die attack. They were joined by a resurgent Cappelle but the three riders were never out of sight and Farrar came through in the final fifty meters for the win.