British team's black train dominates Dutch stage but Orange team still holds the lead
Greg Henderson (Team Sky) won the third stage of the Ster Electrotoer in Schimmert, as the race finished in a bunch sprint once again. Such was the British team’s dominance of the stage finish that Henderson’s teammate Russell Downing finished in second place; Alex Rasmussen (Saxo Bank) was third at the end of the 178km stage.
The sprint happened after Team Sky, with the help of the other sprinters’ teams, chased down a breakaway in the closing kilometres of the hilly stage.
"We didn't get it right on yesterday's stage,” said Henderson afterwards. “We just made some simple mistakes but we sat down afterwards, talked it through and vowed to learn from it - and that's exactly what everyone's done.
"We corrected those simple mistakes today, jockeyed positions around a little bit and it all worked out perfectly,” continued the New Zealader. I was just guiding them from behind, talking to them and making sure everyone knew where they had to be and when they had to do it."
A group of 19 riders escaped the peloton after just 5km, but this was soon reduced to just four. Piet Rooijakkers (Skil-Shimano) Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) en Andrea Tonti (Carmiooro-NGC) and Stijn Neirynck (Topsport Vlaanderen) got away from the others. They managed to keep the peloton at bay until the climb of the Cauberg, where the Amstel Gold Race finishes in April, with just over 40km to go.
As Lars Boom (Rabobank) took the intermediate sprint on the finish line with two 12.3km laps remaining, the former World cyclocross champion detached from the front of the peloton. With him went Emanuelle Sella (Carmiooro-NGC) and Thomas De Gendt (Topsport Vlaanderen) and they were able to build a small gap.
Boom soon dropped the other two but was joined at the front by Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step).
With Kennaugh back in the peloton though, Team Sky was now putting all its weight behind a sprint finish. With the help of riders from HTC-Columbia and Milram, they increased the pace and pulled the two riders back with 9km to go. Once Boom and Pineau were safely back in the fold, the sprinters’ teams kept the pace high, preventing anyone else from eecaping.
Downing led Henderson into the finishing straight and such was the New Zealander’s acceleration to the line that he dropped the other sprinters off his wheel and Downing was able to hold on for second place.
With virtually the entire peloton finishing together there is no change to the top of the overall standings, although 3 bonus seconds taken during the stage sees Boom move up to equal time on teammate Jos Van Emden; 10 bonus seconds on the line also see Henderson rise to fourth place.
Result stage 3
1. Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Sky
2. Russell Downing (GBr) Team Sky
3. Alex Rasmussen (Den) Saxo Bank
4. Denis Galimzyanov (Rus) Team Katusha
5. Kris Broekmans (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator
6. Lucas Haedo (Arg) Saxo Bank
7. André Greipel (Ger) HTC-Columbia
8. Leigh Howard (Aus) HTC-Columbia
9. Kenny Dehaes (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto
10. Roy Sentjens (Bel) Team Milram
Standings after stage 3
1. Jos Van Emden (Ned) Rabobank
2. Lars Boom (Ned) Rabobank
3. Sebastian Langeveld (Ned) Rabobank @ 7s
4. Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Sky @ 7s
5. Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank @ 9s