Eneco Tour – Stage 3

PictonCycles_Banner2016

So close for Mark McNally as he’s caught 10 metres from victory as Peter Sagan storms to victory on stage 3 of the Eneco Tour

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

Eneco Tour – Stage 3

Whilst there was celebration for Peter Sagan there was heartbreak for Liverpool’s Mark McNally (Wanty Gobert) who attacked late from the break and was caught just 10 metres from the finish line, ending up fifth.

McNally was unable to deny the man in form the win as Sagan, a win on Sunday, third on Monday and eighth in yesterday’s time trial, continued his great display of the rainbow stripes with yet another victory.

Video of Final Kilometres

Tinkoff Press Release
Peter Sagan’s stellar week has continued with a superb stage win on day 3 of the Eneco Tour in Ardooie, Belgium. Managing to find the smallest of gaps through the middle of the peloton, Peter proved the fastest of the bunch on the second sprint showdown of the race.

The stage saw a nail-biting finish with the day’s break of five only being caught as the sprint opened up. Initially it looked like Peter would be too far back to be able to contest the top placings on the stage, but a show of technical skill and nerve saw the World and European champion find an unimaginable gap and pull clear for a convincing win in the final metres. With the win, Peter moves into second on GC, just three seconds down, and comforts his lead in the red jersey of points leader.  .. continued after advert

2016_ShuttVeloRapideAdvert

Peter Sagan “I think God opened the street for me in the finishing sprint like Moses parted the seas,” Peter joked after the finish, clearly delighted with the stage win. “It was fun and I’m very happy to win here. Thanks again to all my teammates as they did an unbelievable job on the last laps and helped me today. For now, we’re doing very well but we’ll take it day-by-day and see how we are tomorrow and then in the team time trial. Sunday is still some way away but for now we’re doing well and we’ll try to continue like this.”

The race got underway with a break of five riders (including Mark McNally) pulling clear in the opening kilometres, building an advantage that grew to over six minutes. Much like on the first stage, the sprinters’ teams were keen to pick up the chase, along with that of the race leader, and control the gap ahead of a likely bunch finish.

Their advantage fell as the stage progressed but in the final 20km the five picked up the pace and started to hold off the peloton. A concerted chase from behind eventually brought the gap down but it was touch and go until the final few hundred metres as to whether the break or the peloton would take it.

Mark McNally “I think I did everything I could in the final. If I went earlier I am beaten from the guys in the breakaway. I think the rider of IAM Cycling made a mistake by attacking with 2 km to go because everyone started gambling then. I thought I had it 10m from the line but they came too fast. If I did it again, I don’t think I would have done anything different.”

Rohan Dennis: “It was supposed to be an easy stage for us,” Dennis said. “We knew there was going to be a sprint, but at a certain moment we were taking them back too quickly and didn’t want to sprint for the Golden Kilometre. At the end it seemed like we were easing the pace, but we wanted to take them back as quickly as possible. We knew Sagan was going to be a big rival for the overall victory. He can sprint and climb. Maybe tomorrow he’ll win again and take over the jersey, but we’ll still have the team time trial to set things straight.”

1 Peter Sagan TINKOFF 4:10:36
2 Danny van Poppel TEAM SKY 0:00:00
3 Nacer Bouhanni COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS 0:00:00
4 Dylan Groenewegen TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO 0:00:00
5 Mark McNally WANTY – GROUPE GOBERT 0:00:00
6 Giacomo Nizzolo TREK – SEGAFREDO 0:00:00
7 Martin Elmiger IAM CYCLING 0:00:00
8 Marcel Kittel ETIXX – QUICK STEP 0:00:00
9 André Greipel LOTTO SOUDAL 0:00:00
10 Alexander Kristoff TEAM KATUSHA 0:00:00

14 Caleb Ewan ORICA GreenEDGE 0:00:00
34 Alex Dowsett MOVISTAR TEAM 0:00:00
44 Tom Boonen ETIXX – QUICK STEP 0:00:00
48 Jack Bauer CANNONDALE 0:00:00
55 Ryan Mullen CANNONDALE 0:00:00
64 Geraint Thomas TEAM SKY 0:00:00
173 Luke Rowe TEAM SKY

Eneco leader’s jersey
1 Rohan Dennis BMC RACING TEAM 8:35:24
2 Peter Sagan TINKOFF 0:00:03
3 Jos Van Emden TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO 0:00:05
4 Jasha Sütterlin MOVISTAR TEAM 0:00:14
5 Martin Elmiger IAM CYCLING 0:00:14
6 Wilco Kelderman TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO 0:00:15
7 Matthias Brandle IAM CYCLING 0:00:15
8 Primoz Roglic TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO0:00:16
9 Taylor Phinney BMC RACING TEAM 0:00:16
10 Marcel Kittel ETIXX – QUICK STEP 0:00:17
11 Alex Dowsett MOVISTAR TEAM 0:00:18

AlpsCyclesMidstory

 

Send your results as well as club, team & event news here

Cero

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

Tags: ,