Bos takes sprint victory in Genk

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Theo Bos (Rabobank) won stage 3 of the Eneco Tour in a tight sprint finish. The Dutchman may have started his celebration a tad early as John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) almost pipped him at the line with his bike throw while Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Sharp) rounded out the top three in the 188km stage from Riemst to Genk.

The rolling parcours proved difficult for Bos but the 28-year-old Dutchman prevailed with his fourth win of the season and the first of his career at the WorldTour level.

"It was a tough race," said Bos. "Even during the last kilometres I was wondering where I would find the strength. Yesterday we could already see that the whole team was strong and one rides such a final in a group, like a kind of team time trial. It's nice that I am able to finish it off."

The Eneco Tour race route covers both Bos's native Netherlands plus Belgium and while he would have preferred to win on home soil, a win is a win.

"Of course the finish was in Belgium, but still it's nice. It happens to be the first time I've won here, so actually we have a double first here today."

The Argos-Shimano squad was working for stage 1 winner Marcel Kittel in the finale, but the German fast finisher suffered an untimely flat with 5km remaining. The Dutch Pro Continental squad changed strategy and Degenkolb fell just short of the stage win.

Overnight leader Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEdge) finished in the field and remains atop general classification. The top five positions overall are all occupied by Orica-GreenEdge riders after their stage win yesterday in the team time trial.

The break of the day was comprised of four riders and escaped the peloton after 25km of racing. Included in the attack were Alex Dowsett (Sky), Matteo Bono (Lampre-ISD), who won the Eneco Tour's stage into Genk the previous year from a breakaway, Laurens De Vreese (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) and James Vanlandschoot (Accent Jobs-Willems Veranda's). Their advantage topped out at 5:25 with 100km remaining and the Orica-GreenEdge-led peloton then set to work to steadily reduce their lead. Team Argos-Shimano also began to assist in the chase efforts and the four escapees were ultimately caught inside of 15 kilometres to the finish.

David Tanner (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) tried to catch the sprinters' teams off guard with a solo attack at two kilometres to go, but was swept up with 750 metres remaining. Bos's lead-out man Mark Renshaw then swung off the head of the single file peloton which forced Argos-Shimano's hand. Bos keyed off of Degenkolb in the finale and was able to hold off the German sprinter for the stage win.