Reports

Eneco Tour 2014: Tom Dumoulin wins stage three individual time trial

Lars Boom takes overall lead

Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) beat Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) to win the 9.6km individual time trial on stage three of the Eneco Tour, while Lars Boom (Belkin Pro Cycling) moved into the overall lead.

Dumoulin, the Dutch national time trial champion, clocked 10:55 minutes to beat Cancellara’s mark by just two seconds, while Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas finished a further eight seconds adrift in third to rise to sixth overall.

Dutch national time trial champion Tom Dumoulin underlined his burgeoning reputation with victory on stage three of the Eneco Tour (Pic: Sirotti)

Boom, who started the day second overall behind overnight leader Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), now leads the seven-stage race by four seconds from BMC Racing’s Manuel Quinziato, with Dumoulin third on the same time.

Dumoulin has established a reputation as one of the finest young time trialists in the sport and today’s test provided a welcome tonic to the 23-year-old’s overall ambitions in the race after he lost 14 seconds due to a puncture on stage one.

Cancellara was the first rider to stop the clock in less than 11 minutes in Breda and the three-time world time trial champion looked set for victory until Dumoulin beat the Swiss rider’s mark to claim his third victory of the season and first at WorldTour level.

“I am super happy, I could not have done it better,” said Dumoulin. “I was really focused on this race and I did it as perfect as possible, concentrating on my position and [the] corners.

“Yesterday was not easy, I was really disappointed about it. It was really hard work to get back and also disappointing to lose time in the fight for GC.

“This is my first WorldTour win. I’ve had some bad luck and then I have been denied a few times by Tony [Martin] but now it’s great to get the win finally and to move back into contention overall.”

Meanwhile, Thomas, who won time trial bronze at the Commonwealth Games before claiming road race gold, continued his strong form with third on the day to boost his overall challenge ahead of the remaining four stages.

Steve Cummings (BMC Racing) also claimed a top ten finish on the stage, finishing 17 seconds behind Dumoulin in sixth, while Commonwealth Games time trial champion Alex Dowsett (Movistar) finished 15th, 24 seconds off the pace.

Eneco Tour 2014: stage three – result

1) Tom Dumoulin (NED) – Giant-Shimano – 10:55 minutes
2 Fabian Cancellara (SWI) – Trek Factory Racing +2″
3) Geraint Thomas (GBR) – Team Sky +10″
4) Manuel Quinziato (ITA) – BMC Racing +14″
5) Jesse Sergent (NZL) – Trek Factory Racing +15″
6) Steve Cummings (GBR) – BMC Racing +17″
7) Andriy Grivko (UKR) – Astana – same time
8) Moreno Moser (ITA) – Cannondale Pro Cycling +18″
9) Lars Boom (NED) – Belkin Pro Cycling +19″
10) Rohan Dennis (AUS) – BMC Racing +20″

General classification

1) Lars Boom (NED) – Belkin Pro Cycling – 8:31:54 hours
2) Manuel Quinziato (ITA) – BMC Racing +4″
3) Tom Dumoulin (NED) – Team Giant-Shimano – same time
4) Andriy Grivko (UKR) – Astana +7″
5) Zdenek Stybar (CZE) – Omega Pharma-QuickStep +12″
6) Geraint Thomas (GBR) – Team Sky +14″
7) Niki Terpstra (NED) – Omega Pharma-QuickStep +18″
8) Kristijan Koren (SLO) – Cannondale Pro Cycling +19″
9) Sep Vanmarcke (BEL) – Belkin Pro Cycling +21″
10) Philippe Gilbert (BEL) – BMC Racing – same time