April 3/14 16:20 pm - VDK-Driedaagse De Panne - Koksijde/3 Jours de la Panne: Stage 3B

Posted by Editoress on 04/3/14
 

Cannondale Pro Cycling's Maciej Bodnar takes final stage

Cannondale Pro Cycling has doubled their wins at Driedaagse De Panne. The Green Machine claimed the final stage of the race. Polish time trial champion Maciej Bodnar gave a powerful performance and was the fastest rider on two wheels during the 14 km ITT with a time of 17'51". Jan Barta of Netapp-Endurance came in second while FDJ's David Boucher came in third.

An experienced rider, Bodnar is one of Cannondale Pro Cycling's most reliable domestiques. At 28 years-old, he is also a team veteran. Since becoming a professional in 2008, Bodnar has had five major career wins including three national championships and the team time trials at Giro d'Italia and Settimana Internazionale in 2010. At 2012 in Driedaagse De Panne, Bodnar came in fifth at the ITT and the third in GC.

"I'm really proud of this victory and also a little surprised," said Bodnar. "For a rider like me it's not usual to stay on the highest stage of the podium, and when happens it's always awesome. We're in Belgium to help Sagan, and we're happy to do this, but in De Panne we had a chance to search some personal glory and I took it."

"Doing a good performance was my aim since the beginning of the race. I had really good feeling since the first moment of today's stage. And when you feel your legs pushing hard, you become more and more confident. This win is also the result hard work on this speciality. You can't invent something out of nothing. I've been working since the winter with our coaches, doing dedicated training and working on positioning and aerodynamics. This is the outcome."

"I wish I could have a toast with my teammates, but tomorrow morning we have to focus on a new goal. The Ronde Van Vlaanderen is coming, and we want to do the best we can to carry Peter to the win. How we performed during the week, and our attitude at each stage shows we have very good condition. We have to chase this dream," added Bodnar. 

Svein Tuft (Orica GreenEDGE) finished 13th on the stage at 27 seconds back and Antoine Duchesne (Team Europcar) 26th at 40 seconds.

Omega Pharma - Quick-Step's Van Keirsbulck Wins Overall

The general classification of VDK Driedaagse de Panne-Koksijde came down to four riders on course at the same time: Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team riders Niki Terpstra, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck, and the race leader Gert Steegmans against ORICA-GreenEDGE rider Luke Durbridge at the 14km Stage 3b time trial on Thursday.

Van Keirsbulck emerged as the overall winner thanks to an impressive top 5 finish in the stage. He placed 5th with a time of 18'02". Gert Steegmans rounded out the GC podium, finishing with a time of 18'19" in the stage.

The day, however, did not go perfectly for OPQS. Niki Terpstra had a problem with a small broken piece of his left pedal when he left the start house, which left him unable to clip back in and push 100 percent — especially accelerating after the corners — for the rest of the race. Terpstra was unable to contest the stage or the overall, but despite the mechanical problem he finished 4th in the GC with an 18'21" stage finishing time.

Tuft's 13th place in the ITT moved him into 31st place overall with Duchesne finishing 35th.