Kristof Vandewalle (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) underlined his status as Belgium's best time triallist when he took his second consecutive win in the national championships today. He beat 2011 champion Philippe Gilbert and teammate Julien Vermote to earn himself the right to wear the Drikleur for another season.
Kristof Vandewalle has gradually developed into Belgium's best time triallist and when he last year won the Belgian time trial championship, he also got a jersey to prove it. Today he earned himself the right to wear that tunic for another year when he repeated that win on a 44km course in Maldegem.
Vandewalle was superior in the race and defeated 2011 champion Philippe Gilbert convincingly, finishing in a time that was 1.02 better than the one set by the world road race champion. Julien Vermote proved that he is another emerging time trial specialist by making it onto the podium with a time that was only 3 seconds slowe than Gilbert's.
Jan Bakelants (Radioshack) proved his versatile talents by finishing 4th while talented Yves Lampaert (Topsport Vlaanderen) completed the top 5. Former champions Stijn Devolder (Radioshack) and Maxime Monfort had disappointing rides to finish 6th and 17th respectively while Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil) finished an even more distant 17th.
Vandewalle has now set his sights on the world team time trial championships where he aims to defend last year's victory with his team while Gilbert and Bakelants proved that they are ready for the Eneco Tour which starts tomorrow.
Result:
1. Kristof Vandewalle 54.04
2. Philippe Gilbert +1.02
3. Julien Vermote +1.05
4. Jan Bakelants +1.11
5. Yves Lampaert +1.15
6. Stijn Devolder +1.42
7. Guillaume Van Keirsbulck +1.43
8. Bart De Clercq +1.44
9. David Boucher +1.58
10. Stijn Steels +2.14
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