Kristoff remains on top ahead of time trial

Alexander Kristoff of Katusha cemented his lead in the Three Days of De Panne, winning the mass sprint of the half-stage Thursday morning. He held on to beat the fast-finishing Andre Schulze of Team NetApp, with Kenny Van Hummel (Vacansoleil-DCM) third.

Ten riders were not at the early start of the day's half-stage. Katusha, supporting race leader Alexander Kristoff, kept the field together during the early part of the race. Finally Preben van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen) grabbed the initiative and took off. He was eventually joined by Rob Goris (Accent Jobs-Willems Veranda's), Clinton Avery (Champion System) Jonathan Breyne (Landbouwkrediet) and Andrea Di Corrado (Colnago-CSF Inox). They built up a lead of up to 2:30 on the day's short course.

The sprinters' teams were careful not to let them get further than that, though, and started bringing the gap down. The five defended themselves successfully and although the gap dipped to under a minute they were able to bring it back up to a minute and a half. Ultimately it was to no avail.

The peloton toyed with them, breathing down their necks for a few kilometers. The leaders, now down to four as Breyne had been dropped, had only a few seconds lead as they went into the final 9 km lap. With 6km to go, the last of the break group was caught.

A crash within the final 3km took down a handful of riders. Katusha, which had taken back the lead work, led the way under the one km marker, as another small crash occurred in the field. Kristoff led the way around the final curve at 250 meters, and held on to take the stage win on the cobblestones.

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