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Gilbert wins Eneco stage 3 and slips into white jersey
Philippe Gilbert continued his remarkable 2011 season by storming to victory in stage three of the Eneco Tour to take the leader’s white jersey.
The Belgian champion burst clear of the peloton at the foot of a climb with 7km remaining and came home nine seconds clear of the chasing bunch led by Grega Bole.
The Omega-Pharma Lotto rider has already won all three Ardennes classics, a stage of the Tour de France and the Clásica de San Sebastián this year.
After the prologue and two flat stages, the 191.2km route from Heers to Andenne was far more conky, featuring three ascents to be climbed twice in the last 25km.
An early break from Alex Rasmussen, Tom Veelers, Julien Fouchard and Stefan Van Dijk had a four minute advantage at one point but they were reeled in before the tough finish where Gilbert produced a trademark attack to take the overall lead away from Taylor Phinney.
"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 attack," Gilbert said.
"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."
Gilbert goes into Friday's time trial over 14.7 kilometres in Roermond with a six second advantage over Edvald Boasson Hagen on GC.
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