For the second day in a row, British sprinter Mark Cavendish bested the pack in Belgium’s Three Days of De Panne.

The High Road fastman out-kicked Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) to win Thursday’s 119km morning sector as part of the two-stage finale. Slovenian Borut Bozic (Collstop) came through second with Danilo Napolitano (Lampre) fourth.

Like he did in Wednesday’s stage, Cavendish won once again in a long sprint.

Italian Enrico Gasparotto (Barloworld) conserved his leader’s jersey going into the afternoon’s decisive 14km individual time trial.

Gasparotto carries a five-second cushion to Luca Paolini (Acqua e Sapone) and seven seconds to Manuel Quinziato (Liquigas). Teammate Baden Cooke is sixth at 25 seconds back while defending champion Alessandro Ballan (Lampre) is still in striking distance at 10th at 40 seconds back.