Svein Tuft Third in Final Stage at Three Days of De Panne

The Three Days of De Panne ended today with a double stage in and around De Panne, Belgium. The morning stage was a 112 kilometer stage won by Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions). The stage race wrapped up with a 14.5 kilometer time trial won by David Millar (Garmin-Transitions), giving him also the general classification overall win.

Canadian Svein Tuft (Garmin-Transitions) raced the Three Days of De Panne in support of Farrar and Millar. Tuft crashed on the first day of this three day stage race, but rallied to continue to ride hard for his team mates. In the morning stage, Tuft finished 94th and in the afternoon time trial he finished third only 24 seconds off Millar’s winning time. Tuft set his blistering pace early on in the stage leading for most of the day with a time of 19:08.

After wrapping up the stage race with a third place in the time trial, Tuft took sometime to share his thoughts on this final day and the race overall.

Did the stage race live up to your expectations?
Yes, De Panne did live up to my expectations. Yesterday was one of the more brutal days I’ve had on a bike. 4 degrees and raining and 50 kilometer per hour crosswinds. Today was short and we rode the front from start to finish and Tyler pulled off the win. It’s great riding for team mates who can get the job done as Dave proved in the final time trial and winning the overall. De Panne is one of those races everyone shudders when they hear talk of it, but everyone has a lot of respect for someone who can win it. This bodes well for our upcoming races.

Given your crash on Tuesday, your race strategy had to change. How do you handle this mentally?
My crash on Tuesday was frustrating but you can’t stress about that stuff too much. You just carry on and do your job the best you can. We came here with the objective of Dave winning the overall and we did more than we expected, so that makes for a great race for the team.

How do you prepare for a double day of racing after two hard days on the bike?
Preparing for a double day is like any other. We knew the morning stage was going to be some hard work so you treat it like a one day and go from there. If your legs are still good, you go for it in the time trial. Obviously the goal for the team is to make sure Dave and Tyler don’t touch the wind until they have too.

Does the harsh Belgian weather factor into your racing and recovery strategy?
The weather at this race has really factored into the race strategy here. The crosswinds blow this race to pieces. If you aren’t vigilant you will find yourself at the back very quickly. A team can take control and split the field into a front group of 30 guys. It makes for very nervous racing. So the strategy is just make sure our general classification guys are in the top 20 at all times.