Gert Joeaar got a scare in today's final stage of the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen when Guillaume Van Kerirsbulck attacked his overall lead in the final of the race. In the end, his Cofidis team managed to reduce the gap sufficiently to allow him to take the overall win by just 3 seconds.

While most were surprised that Gert Joeaar had won the opening prologue of the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, the Estonian himself claimed to be not the least bit surprised. Having made the race his big season target, he had carefully prepared his race and he was eager to put his form on good show.

Today he fulfilled his dream when he was crowned overall winner of the race but he had to overcome a late scare that could potentially have destroyed it all at the last minute. On the finishing circuit in Ichtegem in the second and final stage, Guillaume Van Kerirsbulck made it into a 15-rider breakaway that managed to keep a 20-second gap for a long time.

With help from the Trek team which was eager to set up stage one winner Danny Van Poppel for another sprint victory, the peloton got closer but Van Keirsbulck refused to give up. He took off on his own and had 14 seconds in hand with 3km to go.

Van Keirsbulck had started the stage just 14 seconds behind Joeaar and with 10 bonus seconds for the win, he just needed to keep a 4-second gap at the line. In the end, Cofidis managed to reduce the gap to just 1 second and so Van Keirsbulck only took 2nd while Joeaar defended his lead.

"I almost lost my jersey," he told Directvelo. "Fortunately, we have narrowed the gap in the final kilometers. Our team received a helping hand from Trek who was rode for Van Poppel. My teammates did a great job. 

"I'm glad to give Cofidis their first stage victory and first stage race win this year. Tonight we can celebrate it worthily with champagne and beer."