Alexander Kristoff enjoyed the most beautiful moment of his sporting life when he won Milan-Sanremo but since hitting the Belgian cobbles, he has performed below expectations. Today he showed signs of progress when he made the key split on the Kemmelberg in the second stage of the Driedaagse van de Panne before sprinting to third place and he was pleased to see his form getting back on the rise.

A mad chase to bring back a trio of riders resulted in reduced field sprint with Alexander Kristoff taking the third spot on the stage of the VDK-Driedaagse De Panne - Koksijde.

Kristoff was near the front of the group when the sprint opened up, initially almost blocked in on the left side. But as the sprint moved right and then back toward the middle, Kristoff moved into a good position to go for the finish line. 

"Third is not bad but of course I was hoping for the win after the nice work from the team. My teammates did a great job. It was not the perfect sprint, not smooth, I was a little bit blocked, but I have a good feeling. Waregem and Gent - Wevelgem were not super for me but yesterday was ok. Today I felt already much better. It looks good."

The crucial moment of the race came in the middle of the distance at Kemmelberg where after several attacks the peloton found itself split in few parts with the leading group of more or less 30 riders, including 3 riders of Katusha Team - Milan-Sanremo winner Alexander Kristoff, Luca Paolini and Aleksandr Porsev. The group did well and managed to get around of 2 minutes of advantage to the other groups in the final part of the race.

At the final intermediate sprint three riders attacked from the leading group – Oscar Gatto from Cannondal and two riders from Omega Pharma – Quick-Step – Niki Terpstra and Guillaume Van Keirsbulck.

A chasing field of 30 riders, led by Katusha Team, closed the gap to three riders at 3.3 km to go to set up a sprint from the reduced group.

The road narrowed and there was plenty of bumping and barging in the group, making for a messy sprint, but Sacha Modolo (Lampre) found his way to the front for the win.  Arnaud Démare (FdJ) was second and Alexander Kristoff took the third position.

"The team did what it had to do," Sports director Gennady Mikhaylov said. "They brought Alexander Kristoff in a good position over the Kemmelberg and then we were with three riders in the front. Alexander Porsev and Luca Paolini did everything they could to bring back the break of the two Omega Pharma-QuickStep riders and Gatto. And then it was up to Kristoff in the sprint."

More than three minutes later the remaining riders crossed the finish line. Gert Steegmans now leads the race by one second over Oscar Gatto (Cannondale) and 3 seconds over Kenneth Van Bilsen of Topsport Vlaanderen. Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff is 10th, 24 seconds behind.

Thursday is the final day in De Panne and brings a road stage in the morning - which Kristoff has won twice in a row - followed by a decisive time trial in the afternoon to bring the race to a close.

Starting at 10.15 and 14.25 CEST respectively you can follow tomorrow's first two stageson CyclingQuotes.com/live. You can read our preview here.