Sagan claims impressive victory in Eneco Tour stage 3
Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) made use of his excellent bike-handling skills to come out on top in a very dramatic third stage of the Eneco Tour.
When the early break was caught just 100m from the line, the Slovakian found his way from far back to pass all his sprint rivals and come around Danny Van Poppel (Sky) to win the stage and pick up 10 valuable bonus seconds, with Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) completing the podium. The world champion is now just 3 seconds behind Rohan Dennis (BMC) in the overall standings.
The Australian faces a harder challenge in tomorrow’s fourth stage which includes some famous terrain from Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Brabantse Pijl. In the early part, the riders will tackle the Lippenhovestraat and Paddestraat cobbles before they get to the 32km circuit that will be done twice. It includes a small pave of 800m and the climbs of Alsemberg and Bruine Put. The final ascent comes with 13.7km to go and then it is a flat run to the finish.
Eneco Tour 2016 – stage 3 results (Blankenberge – Ardooie):
| 1 | Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) |
4:10:36 |
| 2 | Danny Van Poppel (Sky) |
,, |
| 3 | Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) |
,, |
| 4 | Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) |
,, |
| 5 | Mark Mcnally (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) |
,, |
| 6 | Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) |
,, |
| 7 | Martin Elmiger (IAM) |
,, |
| 8 | Marcel Kittel (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
,, |
| 9 | André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) |
,, |
| 10 | Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) |
,, |
General classification after stage 3:
| 1 | Rohan Dennis (BMC) |
8:35:24 |
| 2 | Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) |
+03” |
| 3 | Jos Van Emden (LottoNl-Jumbo) |
+05” |
| 4 | Jasha Sütterlin (Movistar) |
+14” |
| 5 | Wilco Kelderman (LottoNl-Jumbo)Martin Elmiger (IAM) |
,, |
| 6 | Wilco Kelderman (LottoNl-Jumbo) |
+15” |
| 7 | Matthias Brandle (IAM) |
,, |
| 8 | Primoz Roglic (LottoNl-Jumbo) |
+16” |
| 9 | Taylor Phinney (BMC) |
,, |
| 10 | Marcel Kittel (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
+17” |
