Eneco Tour: Tom Dumoulin wins time trial as Lars Boom takes lead
Wednesday 13 August 2014 17:29, UK
Tom Dumoulin pulled out an impressive time trial to win stage three on home ground at the Eneco Tour.
The Dutch time trial champion rebounded from disappointment a day earlier to set a storming time of 10 minutes and 55 seconds around the 9.6-kilometre course in Breda, seeing off an elite field in the process.
That was enough for the Giant-Shimano rider to capture only his second pro victory, two seconds ahead of Fabian Cancellara on the out-and-back blast.
Lars Boom (Belkin) began the day a single second off the lead but did enough to turn that deficit into a four-second advantage on the GC, holding firm ahead of Manuel Quinziato and Dumoulin on the overall standings.
Team Sky's Geraint Thomas also strengthened his general classification ambitions with third quickest time, 10 seconds back on Dumoulin, to move the Welshman up to sixth position. The 28 year old year old now sits 14 seconds down on the white and red jersey.
Drag race
As the day kicked off it was Brit Steve Cummings who set the early benchmark with a time of 11:12.
The goalposts were moved slightly when Jesse Sergent went two seconds quicker, but the field were blown away momentarily by Sergent’s team-mate Cancellara.
The Swiss champion’s time looked like it might hold firm but, buoyed by his home crowd, Dumoulin had just enough in hand to take the stage and almost wipe out his disadvantage following a badly timed puncture on stage two.
Elsewhere on the stage, Alex Dowsett endured a below-par ride to finish 15th on the day, while David Millar struggled to 26th place.
Stage three result
1 - Tom Dumoulin (NED) - Giant - (10:55)
2 - Fabian Cancellara (SUI) - Trek - (+2)
3 - Geraint Thomas (GBR) - Team Sky - (+10)
4 - Manuel Quinziato (ITA) - BMC Racing - (+14)
5 - Jesse Sergent (NZL) - Trek - (+15)
6 - Steven Cummings (ENG) - BMC Racing - (+17)
7 - Andriy Grivko (UKR) - Astana - (+17)
8 - Moreno Moser (ITA) - Cannondale - (+18)
9 - Lars Boom (NED) - Belkin - (+19)
10 - Rohan Dennis (AUS) - BMC Racing - (+20)
General classification
1 - Lars Boom (NED) - Belkin - (8:31:54)
2 - Tom Dumoulin (NED) - Giant - (+4)
3 - Manuel Quinziato (ITA) - BMC Racing - (+4)
4 - Andriy Grivko (UKR) - Astana - (+7)
5 - Zdenek Štybar (CZE) - Omega Pharma - Quick-Step - (+12)
6 - Geraint Thomas (GBR) - Team Sky - (+14)
7 - Niki Terpstra (NED) - Omega Pharma - Quick-Step - (+18)
8 - Kristjan Koren (SLO) - Cannondale - (+19)
9 - Sep Vanmarcke (BEL) - Belkin - (+21)
10 - Philippe Gilbert (BEL) - BMC Racing - (+21)
