Matteo Bono won the fifth stage of the Eneco Tour as Team Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen maintained his overall advantage.
Race building towards a thrilling climax on Sunday
Matteo Bono (Lampre) won the fifth stage of the Eneco Tour after a three-man break just stayed clear, with Team Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen maintaining his overall advantage.
The penultimate stage of the race, a 189.2 kilometres route starting and finishing in Genk, saw Boasson Hagen defending a lead of 12 seconds in what proved a fascinating tactical battle.
The first obstacle for him to negotiate was the opening intermediate sprint after 20.2km and nearest challenger Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) just missed out on cutting into his lead as he finished fourth behind his team-mate André Greipel who took the three seconds bonus ahead of Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing) and Ben Swift (Team Sky).
The day's break was allowed to go clear a little while later, with the trio of Artem Ovechkin (Katusha), the best-placed on the general classification 2:03 back, Sergey Renev (Astana) and Bono opening up an advantage of just over three minutes.
Team Sky controlled the pace on the front of the peloton as they protected the jersey and were more than content to let the escape group hoover up the remaining bonus seconds at the day's two other intermediate sprints which came after 132km and 149km.
It was on the ninth and final climb of the day, with 35km remaining, that BMC Racing put the hammer down and tried to break things up as the rain began to pour down.
But Greg Van Avermaet's dig off the front was quickly closed down by Team Sky pair Michael Barry and Juan Antonio Flecha as the main bunch came back together.
Waiting game
Not surprisingly the gap to the break had tumbled rapidly but Team Sky were content to let it hang at around a minute going into the final 20km and the advantage was to prove just enough for the escape trio who worked well together throughout.
The pack was bearing down on them in sight of the line but Bono timed his sprint to perfection as he came off Renev's wheel to land the spoils, with Ovechkin taking third, three seconds adrift.
It was Bono's first stage victory since 2007.
There were six seconds back to the front group, with Phinney the first of the overall contenders to finish though they were all credited with the same time.
Heading into the final stage Boasson Hagen retains his 12 seconds advantage over Gilbert, with David Millar (Garmin-Cervelo) still 18 seconds back in third and Phinney now 25 seconds down in fourth.
Boasson Hagen not only keeps the overall lead but also heads the other two classifications - the red points jersey and the young rider's green jersey.
There is still plenty of work to do as the race comes down to the wire in Holland on Sunday over a 201.2km route around Sittard-Geleen. A whole series of short, sharp climbs - no fewer than 22 - await the riders as the parcours covers much of the ground of the Amstel Gold Race, won for the last two years by Gilbert.
