Kristoff wins stage 3a in De Panne

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Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) won stage 3a of the Three Day of De Panne in a sprint finish. The Norwegian opened his sprint from the front and powered home ahead of Sacha Modolo (Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox) and Elia Viviani (Cannondale Pro Cycling).

Kristoff now leads the race after picking up enough bonus seconds to take the lead from Arnaud Demare (FDJ). The Olympic bronze medallist now leads the race by four seconds from Demare, with Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma QuickStep) in third, nine seconds back.

“I know the last corner was really important and my teammates did an amazing job putting me in the right position. I then managed to keep the other guys off,” Kristoff said at the finish.

The morning was marked with the news that Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma QuickStep) and Peter Sagan (Cannondale) would not start the race, instead saving their legs for Sunday’s Tour of Flanders.

That didn’t detract from the sprinters’ ambitions for the stage and even when Russell Downing (Team NetApp-Endura), Mike Terpstra (Team 3M), Tim De Troyer (Accent Jobs-Wanty), Niko Eeckhout (An Post-Chainreaction), and Thomas Vanhaecke (Team 3M) slipped clear, the inevitable bunch sprint was always a formality.

With 25km to go they still held a lead of 40 seconds but when FDJ took the race by the scruff of the neck the advantage was nullified with just 4 kilometres.

The French team have raced with true vigour in recent weeks, with Arnaud Demare in form and the race lead, a final stage win was the aim. The team were heavily active on stage 1, racing intelligently and positioning Demare in the lead group with Sagan, while the Frenchman assumed the race lead on stage 2 after Sagan slipped back as to not abandon the race while in the leader’s jersey.

Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Alphonse Vermote (An Post-Chainreaction) briefly led a small escape group as the peloton reached the outskirts of De Panne but with Lotto and GreenEdge joining the pace setting on the front an attack at this point was futile.

Stuart O’Grady, who has found form in recent weeks, hadn’t read the script though and with 8km to go he found himself with a small advantage. Inevitably it didn’t last. The aggression was clearly contagious though with Michael Hepburn following suit inside the 3 kilometres but for the first time in the race it was Argos Shimano who took control of the peloton. Their star man Marcel Kittel has been dragging himself through the race, suffering from time off the back and a recent bout of flu but Tom Veelers in the team they had a worth back-up and in truth they needed the sprint train practice with Scheldeprijs less than a week away.

However coming into the final kilometre the sprint trains began to fragment and with Omega Pharma-QuickStep not present at the front Katusha assumed control as the race entered the final two corners.

The Three Days of De Panne concludes with a 14.75 kilometre time trial this afternoon with last year's winner Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma QuickStep) well placed to repeat his overall win.

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