Russian WorldTour Katusha Team scored a number of good results in the prestigious stage race Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde, which has finished yesterday in Belgium.

In the morning, Alexander Kristoff won the 3rd (a) stage of the race in a sprint decision. In the afternoon, the 14.75 km individual time trial was held as 3rd (b) stage in De Panne. Young Russian rider Anton Vorobyev took a very good result, finishing second just 19 seconds behind stage winner Sylvain Chavanel from Omega Pharma-Quick Step.

This is second podium place for Anton in the last few days – recently he was second in the ITT of the 5th stage of Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Italy.

“Honestly, I am very happy today with my race,” said Anton Vorobyev. “After the finish of the morning stage, I didn’t have a lot of time to rest and to prepare for the ITT. So, it was really hard in the beginning of the race, especially under the strong and cold wind. But after some time I managed to find my rhythm. At the intermediate point I received the information that my time was the best one. So, it gave me some more motivation. More of that, in the car behind me was Viacheslav Ekimov, our general manager. He helped me a lot during the race. I think I can be satisfied with the result – I lost only to Chavanel, he is really strong rider. So, I am quite happy. Now, I am going to Volta Limburg Classic and Circuit Cycliste Sarthe, where I will have one more chance to ride an ITT."

Third place in the ITT went Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil) who lost 21 seconds.