Van Emden nets maiden WorldTour victory at Eneco Tour

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The Eneco Tour time trial belonged to LottoNL-Jumbo as the Dutch squad celebrated going one-two on the stage with Jos van Emden and Dutch champion against the clock Wilco Kelderman with van Emden moving into the overall lead of a WorldTour race for the first time in his career. There was further success with LottoNL-Jumbo moving into the lead of the team classification with three stages left to race.

Van Emden was five seconds quicker than teammate Kelderman on the 13.9km course and leads his compatriot by the same margin on GC with Movistar's Adriano Malori sitting third overall, seven seconds in arrears. Having finished runner up at the Tour of California Big Bear Lake time trial and fifth on the opening day Tour de France time trial in Utretch, van Emden explained his pleasure with snaring his fist win since the 2013 Münsterland Giro.

"My fifth place in the Tour was nice but winning is something different, especially at WorldTour level," van Emden said. "At the moment, I cannot choose between the two yet. I'll put them equally side by side. The team, under the guidance of Mathieu Heijboer, invests a lot of time in time trialling and we invent small innovations all the time."

The 30-year-old explained that while he will enjoy his stint as race leader, he expects his younger teammate will be better suited to the remaining stages before Sunday's conclusion which features the iconic Muur van Geraardsbergen climb.

"It's business as usual tomorrow," he said. "I won't start thinking that I can win the race now. I might be able keep the jersey tomorrow but in the Ardennes it's going to be too difficult for me and as a team, we'll be riding for Wilco there."

Kelderman added that while he would have preferred victory, he recognises that he is in a good position to challenge for overall honours and improve upon his seventh place at the 2013 edition of the race.

"Of course I would have liked to win but finishing second behind Jos is fine as well. I took some time on some other overall riders and I'm in a good position now. That's a nice bonus. There is still a lot that could happen in this Eneco Tour, but today was certainly good for our moral," Kelderman said.