Philippe Gilbert takes third stage win to snatch yellow jersey in Eneco Tour – Cycling Update
Omega Pharma-Lotto team’s Philippe Gilbert showed a magnificent effort in a characteristic attack on climb to win the third stage and also took the yellow jersey in Eneco Tour 2011 on Thursday, August 11.
The race started in Heers and Andenne. The 29-year-old Belgian professional road bicycle racer took the total of 4 hours, 54 minutes and 53 seconds to cover the distance of 191.2 kilometres.
Grega Bole of Lampre – ISD was runner-up with 8 seconds down to the Belgian while Ben Hermans of Radioshack was in third place.
After winning the stage, Gilbert said, "There was a lot of wind and I knew that I had to work hard. I put my guys on the limit and I had to work hard when I attacked."
He further added, "The team thought about this kind of escape before and it was really fast. It's a route that suits me and I knew I had enough time when I got to the final climb and I gave it everything until I got to the line."
Recently, Gilbert took first place in the Amstel Gold race and La Fleche Wallonne. He also took overall lead in Ster ZLM Toer.
After few kilometres to go, the group of four cyclists made their first breakaway lead including, Tom Veelers (Skil-Shimano), Julien Fouchard (Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne), Alex Rasmussen (HTC-Highroad) and Stefan Van Dijk (Veranda's Willems-Accent). Rasmussen
was the only odd man out but showed a brilliant effort.
After 70 kilometres to go, they built a lead of 5 minutes and 10 seconds. In the final 30 kilometres, their advantage dropped and both Rasmussen and Fouchard were brought back and the other two cyclists Veelers and Van Dijk managed to get away.
Stefan Van Dijk of Veranda's Willems – Accent took the second sprint of the stage while Edvald Boasson Hagen increased his pace and managed to gain a maximum points to take a third sprint ahead of Gilbert.
However, in the final kilometres, the Belgian was back on his wheel and launched an attack to take the stage victory. Edvald Boasson took the title of Best Young Rider ahead of Ben Hermans and Phinney.
Gilbert also led in overall standings with the timing of 13 hours, 30 minutes and 34 seconds while Boasson Hagen was in second spot with 5 seconds behind the Belgian.
David Millar of Garmin-Cervelo was in third place with difference of 13 seconds ahead of Dominique Cornu.
The next stage will run in Roermond and all the cyclists will cover the distance of 14.7 kilometres.
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