With several crashes, NetApp-Endura has had plenty of bad luck this past week but today the team got some consolation when their young German sprinter Ralf Matzka took fifth in the opening hafl-stafe of the Driedaagse van De Panne. In fact, the result was taken almost by accident as the team hadn't planned to support the German.

 

Today’s final day of the “Three Days of De Panne” (“Driedaagse De Panne”) was divided into two parts. The first part, a short 110-km stage with a briefly ascending final stretch, was dominated by yesterday’s winner of the day, Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida), who relegated Italian Andrea Guardini (Astana) and Kenny van Hummel (Androni) of the Netherlands to second and third place.   Team NetApp-Endura’s best rider was young Ralf Matzka, who sprinted to a good fifth place finish.

 

“Today we had a bit more luck than the past couple of days since none of our guys were involved in a hard crash," sports director Enrico Poitschke said. "Things definitely could have been different since there were a lot of crashes again.

 

"Ralf’s fifth place is a good result even though we had actually wanted to ride for Blaz [Jarc]. Yet given today’s stressful final stretch with lots of traffic islands and crashes, which is common in Belgium, our guys got a bit lost. Ralf was in a better position and took advantage of the opportunity.

 

"Overall our guys did a good job on the final stretch. They worked together, which is reflected in the result. This was Ralf’s best finish this year. We hope that this will motivate him even more."