Vermeltfoort breaks Phinney's streak

Coen Vermeltfoort (Rabobank Continental) broke Taylor Phinney's run of victory at the Olympia's Tour as he overcame the Trek-Livestrong rider in a sprint finish to stage three in Reuver, the Netherlands on Thursday. Vermeltfoort's teammate Boy van Poppel finished third.

Vermeltfoort told Wieler Magazine that the win had met his pre-race goal for the event, reversing the result of the stage one.

"I saw on Tuesday in Meppel that I had a chance of beating [Phinney] and now it's worked," he said. "Of course it's a relief. It was my big goal here to win a stage and I've done that now. Hopefully it gives the team extra confidence for the next two days for the race to go.''

Phinney retains a commanding 48 second overall lead. Vermeltfoort has moved from fourth to second overall, ahead of Phinney's teammate Jesse Sergent, who is 1:02 down. With just one road stage and an individual time trial to come, Phinney is in a strong position to seal the general classification.

However, Trek-Livestrong was dealt a blow after Alex Dowsett crashed during the stage. The Briton suffered a broken scapula in the incident and returned home to the United Kingdom to recover.