For the first time in the 39-year-old history of the Three Days of De Panne-Koksijde, a rider wins three stages in a row. Alexander Kristoff was responsible for this performance. Kristoff took his third sprint win in three days beating Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) in a super close sprint. It took a while for the officials to decide about the winner. In the end the photo finish made it clear that Kristoff wins with a margin of 3/10000 of a second, some 5 millimeters.

"I think I’ve never experienced such a close win. A draw would be a nice result too. For me we could have been both on the podium, we both deserve it, though I am happy with this verdict too, of course. I started my sprint a bit from too far, just like I did in Milano-Sanremo. There was more headwind than I expected. Greipel was in my wheel and he almost came around me. I had of course the experience with this short morning stage. It is my fifth Three Days of De Panne-Koksijde and I won this morning stage already two times before. Three in a row is unique but I don’t think I will make four in a row. There are here better time trial specialists than me," said Alexander Kristoff.

Thanks to the stage winner’s 6-second time bonus, Kristoff now leads overall by 22 seconds. The final overall classification will be decided in the afternoon 14.2km time trial around De Panne.

 
"I need to go full gas to lose as few seconds as possible and to finish as high as possible in the Overall Classification. In theory I can lose a lot in 14 kilometers. With a top three on the end podium I will be happy already," concluded Alexander Kristoff.