Tobias Ludvigsson was one of the favourites in today's Driedaagse van De Panne time trial but ended far down in 18th. The reason, however, was a stupid crash caused by too much motivation on a day when Marcel Kittel returned to his past by excelling in the race against the clock.

Marcel Kittel has finished the final time trial stage of VDK-Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde in sixth place while Tobias Ludvigsson finished just 30-seconds down despite crashing on the course.

This was a stage Ludvigsson had been focusing on but he came unstuck during his ride and this put an end to his hopes on the relatively short 14.3km time trial.

Kittel rolled off the start ramp soon after Ludvigsson finished and looked powerful from the start. He eventually came across the line in a time of 18’04″, which by the finish left him just 13 seconds adrift. Even though he is focused on his sprinting ability, Kittel’s initial strength on the bike was in time trialling and this often shines through.

Tobias Ludvigsson said after the stage:

“I felt strong in the time trial today but I was maybe a bit too motivated for it and that’s probably the reason why I crashed.”