The two-part third stage of the VDK-Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde can be summed up with three names: Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida), Maciej Bodnar (Cannondale) and Guillaume van Keirsbulck (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).
In the morning, the Italian Modolo secured the almost 100-kilometer half-stage around De Panne, which he won in the field's sprint like the day before. This time, however, he relegated Andrea Guardini (Astana) and Kenny van Hummel (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) to their places. The best German was Ralf Matzka in fifth place.
His team colleague Jan Barta almost gave the Raublinger Team NetApp-Endura a victory at the end of the tour. After 14 kilometers of fighting against the clock, the Czech champion was only beaten by Poland's Maciej Bodnar.
Anyone who had expected Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) to win as a favorite before the time trial was wrong. The Dutchman had his pedals after the start and lost valuable seconds as a result. For his team, however, the tour ended happily, after all, Van Keirsbulck, another racer from the Belgian team, secured overall victory.
Result 3a
1. Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) 2:22:20
2. Andrea Guardini (Astana) 0:00:00
3. Kenny van Hummel (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) 0:00:00
4. Kenneth van Bilsen (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) 0:00:00
5. Ralf Matzka (NetApp Endura) 0:00:00
Result 3b
1. Maciej Bodnar (Cannondale) 0:17:51
2. Jan Barta (NetApp Endura) 0:00:03
3. David Boucher (FDJ.fr) 0:00:06
4. Luke Durbridge (Orica GreenEdge) 0:00:07
5. Guillaume van Keirsbulck (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) 0:00:11
Total
1. Guillaume van Keirsbulck (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) 11:38:16
2. Luke Durbridge (Orica GreenEdge) 0:00:07
3. Gert Steegmans (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) 0:00:08
4. Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) 0:00:15
5. Marcel Kittel (Giant Shimano) 0:00:21