Moerenhout bests Martin in Ronse

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Dutch veteran Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank) earned what will probably be the final moment of glory of his 15-year career by winning stage three of the Eneco Tour in Ronse in a two-up sprint with Tony Martin (Team HTC-Columbia).

Moerenhout, 36, has already announced he will retire at the end of the current season. However, he still has the class that secured him two Dutch national titles and has clearly been training hard for his final month of his professional career.

Moerenhout attacked hard on the Mont d’Ellezelles climb with 32km to go, after an attack including Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) had been pulled back. Martin had been in the move but had the strength to go with the Dutchman's acceleration.

Two riders seemed to have little chance against a select group of chasers but both Martin and Moerenhout worked hard. The chasers hesitated and the other late climbs further disrupted their pursuit before they lost interest and enthusiasm.

Boasson Hagen tried to make up for missing the move by setting off in lone pursuit on the last time over the Oude Kwaremont climb but he was brought back and again learnt a valuable lesson about missing the decisive move of the race.

At the finish in Ronse, Moerenhout and Martin wisely shared the glory, with the Dutchman taking the stage victory with a long surge to the line, while Martin flicked to the side of the road.

They both finished 1:24 clear of a 28-rider chase group led in by Allan Davis (Astana) who won the sprint for third place and threw his arms up in the air thinking he had won the stage before he realised his embarrassing mistake.

Martin is the new leader of the Eneco Tour general classification and is set up for overall victory as well. The 25-year-old German is 10 seconds ahead of Moerenhout while previous race leader Svein Tuft (Garmin-Transitions) slipped to third overall at 1:26.

"I wasn't familiar with the roads of the stage because I only did the races down here once or twice in my 15-year professional career but it was still a good day," Moerenhout said with a modest smile.

"I felt good and so gave it a go. Martin came up to me and we just kept riding hard. With two hard climbs to go, the group behind was not committed about chasing us down and so we decided to go full gas to try and win."

Martin was surprised to ride so strongly and surprised to take the race lead.

"I'm very surprised. I'm here to prepare for the world championship time trial but now I'm the leader of the race," he said. "Moerenhout wanted to win the stage and I wanted the race leader's jersey, so it was perfect."

The Eneco Tour ends with a 16.9km time trial in Genk on Tuesday and so Martin is now the huge favourite for overall success thanks to his 90-second lead on Tuft, Boasson Hagen, Lars Boom (Rabobank) and Richie Porte (Saxo Bank), all strong against the clock. There are still two hilly stages, however, in the Ardennes on Sunday and Monday after Saturday's long flat stage to Roermond.