Three Days of De Panne 2008

Stage one of the Three Days of De Panne 2008 (A minor classic) from Middelkerke to Zottegem (192 km) held on April 1.

The decisive move came 21 kilometers before the finish, when Enrico Gasparotto (Barloworld) was able to get away from the field. The Italian was quickly joined by Luca Paolini (Astana) , and the two were able to build up a small advantage ahead of the first group of followers.

A chase group included Niki Terpstra (Milram), who, along with Manuel Quinziato (Liquigas), gave chase and caught the two leaders 12 km before the finish.

The foursome held a lead of about 20 seconds up to the end, and were thus able to take the victory. The German, Terpstra had no chance against the three Italians in the final sprint and after his exhausting chase settled for fourth place.

A huge round of applause to Topsports' Preben Van Hecke who was away fro many, many kilometres until he was gobbled up by the race.

"What can you say after a day like that?" Barloworld directeur sportif Valerio Tebaldi said. "Everything went perfect. The team showed right from the start that they wanted to win and Enrico inspired the team. Now we'll see what happens in the remaining two days of the race. This is a difficult and unpredictable race but the guys have been fantastic."

Gasparotto won the stage with an attack on the Berendries climb, taking Luca Paolini (Acqua e Sapone), Manuel Quinziato (Liquigas) and Nicki Tepstra (Milram) with him. They worked well together in the final 16km of racing and then Gasparotto won the sprint, jumping away with impressive confidence, 300 metres from the line. Just behind Baden Cooke was sixth in the first chase group.

For Gasparotto the win finally ended a run of bad luck and near misses. "I knew I was on good form and had a strong team to help me and so we deserved a big win. It's important for all of us and we can even win the overall classification of this race and look forward to Sunday's Tour of Flanders," he said.

1 133 GASPAROTTO Enrico BAR ITA B:11" 00"
2 221 PAOLINI Luca ASA ITA B:06" ' '
3 82 QUINZIATO Manuel LIQ ITA B:04" ' '
4 108 TERPSTRA Niki MRM NED ' '
5 66 EISEL Bernhard THR AUT 14"
6 131 COOKE Baden BAR AUS ' '
7 8 SPILAK Simon LAM SLO ' '
8 53 POSTHUMA Joost RAB NED 16"
9 1 BALLAN Alessandro LAM ITA 29"
10 206 HOVELYNCK Kurt TSV BEL B:01" ' '
17 67 HAMMOND Roger THR GBR
Plus
45 151 BACKSTEDT Magnus TSL SWE
49 197 STANNARD Ian LAN GBR
53 12 BOONEN Tom QST BEL
140 63 CAVENDISH Mark THR GBR

Entry list