Philippe Gilbert and Luke Durbridge celebrate in De Panne
Mar 31 2017 01:11 am CET
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDSPHILIPPE GILBERT
LUKE DURBRIDGE
QUICK - STEP FLOORS
ORICA - SCOTT
DRIEDAAGSE DE PANNE-KOKSIJDE
Philippe Gilbert of Quick-Step Floors has won the Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde. The final stage, an individual time trial, went to Luke Durbridge of Orica-Scott.
Gilbert began the time trial with a 50-second advantage over Trek-Segafredo's Matthias Brandle. The Austrian clocked the better time in the time trial but was only 12 seconds faster than Gilbert, who as such secured his overall victory.
Norwegian Alexander Kristoff remained in third place following a solid time trial performance in which the Katusha-Alpecin rider reduced the gap with the race leader from 58 seconds to just 43.
In the battle for the stage victory, Durbridge was significantly faster than his rivals. Sylvain Chavanel, who finished in second place and fourth overall, needed a minute and 17 seconds more to complete the course than the Australian.
The win will be bitter-sweet for Durbridge, who likely would have won the overall classification if it hadn't been for the significant loss of time he suffered during the second stage on Wednesday.
Gilbert succeeds Dutchman Lieuwe Westra, who won the race in 2016 but unexpectedly retired from cycling several months later.
