BMC Racing Team's Stefan Küng was runner-up to world time trial champion Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) in the final stage time trial Thursday on the way to a fourth-place finish overall at Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde. Küng was 10 seconds off Wiggins' winning time of 17:49 on the 14.2-kilometer course.

"In the last five kilometers, I struggled a little bit and that might have cost me a few seconds," Küng said to the BMC Racing Team website. "But in general, I am very happy. I didn't know how my condition was when I came into this race, so to finish it off like this gives me a lot of morale for the upcoming races."

Küng enjoyed his best result since winning the world individual pursuit title on the track in France in February. He had raced only once since then (at Dwars door Vlaanderen), but managed to solo away from the peloton on Stage 1 as it was chasing a six-man breakaway. That performance earned the former BMC Development Team rider a seventh place result, two seconds ahead of the bunch, and set the stage for his high finish overall.

"You could tell he was really hungry for the time trial," BMC Racing Team Sport Director Jackson Stewart said. "At the time split, we had him only two or three seconds down on Wiggins and he managed to keep that second place. It is really impressive to have such a young guy who can do a time trial like this. For us, it shows a lot for the future."

Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha) won the race overall on the strength of a record three straight stage wins on the three road stages and a third-place finish in the time trial. In the final standings, he was 23 seconds better than runner-up Stijn Devolder (Trek Factory Racing), 42 seconds in front of Wiggins and 50 seconds ahead of Küng.