Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) was by far the strongest in today's final, all-decisive time trial in the Driedaagse van de Panne. With a dominant stage victory, he held off a surprisingly strong Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) in the fight for the overall win.

Sylvain Chavanel had shown impressive strength in the lead up to this year's Driedaagse van de Panne and entered the race as the overwhelming favourite. He made his intentions of a repeat of last year's overall win clear with attentive and aggressive racing throughout the opening three stages and started today's final stage 17 seconds ahead of pre-race rivals Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil) and Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEdge).

He finished off the previous days' work with a superior performance in today's time trial, and he was 19 seconds faster than nearest challenger Anton Vorobyev (Katusha). With another win in De Panne, there is no doubt that Chavanel is among the biggest favourites for this Sunday's Tour of Flanders.

Anton Vorobyev (Katusha) once again showed that he is a rising time trial star. The U23 world champion in the discipline held the lead for most of the day, and only Chavanel managed to beat his time. Today's result was his second runner-up position in less than a week after he was only beaten by Adriano Malori (Lampre) in the time trial in Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali on Sunday.

Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) was third on the stage and thus he was not able to replicate his 2nd place of the two most recent editions. His time loss in the opening stages meant that he failed to step onto the final overall podium, and he had to be satisfied with a 5th place.

Alexander Kristoff was the big surprise of the time trial. Starting the race in the leader's jersey, the winner of the morning's sprint stage managed to take an impressive 6th place on the stage, and he beat a number of established time trial specialists like Durbridge, Jens Mouris (Orica-GreenEdge) and Tom Dumoulin (Argos-Shimano). His performance was rewarded with a very surprising overall runner-up position.

The final step on the podium was taken by Chavenel's teammate Nike Terpstra. The Dutchman had started the final stage as the most likely threat to another Chavanel GC victory, but he only managed 5th on the stage. It was, however, enough, to hold off young sensation Johan Le Bon (FDJ) by a single second to take the overall third place.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step had another dominant performance in the race, and with Chavanel, Terpstra, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck and Mark Cavendish, the Belgian super team seems to ready for the title defence in their big home race om Sunday.

Result

1 Sylvain Chavanel - Omega Pharma-QuickStep 18.02
2 Anton Vorobyev - Katusha 0.19
3 Lieuwe Westra - Vacansoliel-DCM 0.21
4 Johan Le Bon - FDJ 0.24
5 Niki Terpstra - Omega Pharma - QuickStep 0.31
6 Alexander Kristoff - Katusha 0.32
7 Tom Doumoulin - Argos-Shimano 0.34
8 Jens Mouris - Vacansoleil-DCM 0.35
9 Luke Durbridge - Orica-GreenEgde
10 Guilaume van Kiersbulck - Omega Pharma-QuickStep  0.41

Final general classification

1 Sylvain Chavanel - Omega Pharma-Quick Step 12.34.28
2 Alexander Kristoff - Katusha 0.22
3 Niki Terpstra - Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0.31
4 Johan Le Bon - FDJ 0.32
5 Lieuwe Westra - Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0.38
6 Tom Dumoulin - Team Argos-Shimano 0.51
7 Luke Durbridge - Orica-GreenEdge 0.52
8 David Boucher - FDJ 0.57
9 Guillaume Van Keirsbulck - Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0.58
10 Mark Cavendish - Omega Pharma-Quick Step 1.06