Estonian Gert Jœäär (Cofidis) has won the start of the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen. For the seven-kilometer time trial in Middelkerke, he needed 7:53 minutes and was five seconds faster than Johan Le Bon (FDJ.fr), who relegated last year's winner Kristof Vandewalle (Trek Factory Racing) to third place by a further three seconds. Jan Barta from the Raublinger ProConti-Team NetApp-Endura finished ninth, seventeen seconds behind.
The performance of Rick Zabel (BMC) was pleasing from a German point of view. He ended up eighteenth. The second best German was Tino Thömel from Berlin (Team Stuttgart) in 33rd place.
Result
1. Gert Jœäär (Cofidis) 0:07.53
2. Johan Le Bon (FDJ.fr) 0:07.58
3. Kristof Vandewalle (Trek Factory Racing) 0:08.01
4. Stijn Devolder (Trek Factory Racing) 0:08.04
5.Jesse Sergent (Trek Factory Racing) 0:08.08