Tuft takes Eneco Tour prologue

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Svein Tuft (Garmin-Transitions) won the 5.2km Eneco Tour prologue in Steenwijk, The Netherlands, to take the first ProTour victory of his career. Tuft, the reigning Canadian time trial champion, tackled a wet and technical circuit in 6:18, besting Dutch time trial champion Jos Van Emden (Rabobank) by five seconds.

"I had a feeling I could do a ride today," said Tuft. "I was going to take risks and give it everything but I didn't expect to win by that much. I'm really happy because this is my first ProTour win.

"There were a few corners you had to be careful with but there were a few long sections you could pick up the speed on too. "

Tuft is on good form of late having won the Tour of Denmark's stage five time trial on August 7 and finishing second overall on general classification. The victory is Tuft's second of the season to go along with his time trial national title earned in June.

Lars Boom (Rabobank) topped the leader board for much of the day and his effort ultimately resulted in a third place finish, six seconds down. Another Rabobank Dutchman, Maarten Tjallingii, finished fractions of a seconds off the pace of Boom in fourth position.

Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky), the defending Eneco Tour champion, was the final rider to leave the start house and the Norwegian time trial champion put in a good ride to finish fifth, seven seconds off the pace of the Garmin-Transitions Canadian.

Tuft will start tomorrow's 178km stage from Steenwijk to Rhenen in the leader's jersey and the Canadian was cagey about his team's overall ambitions for the Eneco Tour.

"We'll see how it shakes up," said Tuft. "Usually there's a breakaway on a stage like that but we will control things on the front and then let the sprinters' teams take over.

"We've got an experienced team with the likes of Johan Van Summeren, Martijn Maaskant and Robbie Hunter. I'll be relying on them to help me. There are some difficult stages coming up but we'll see how it shakes down."