Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) won a gripping but messy sprint to take stage 3 of the Eneco Tour after the break of the day was caught inside the final 150 metres.

The World Champion came through a sea of riders and through gaps that didn’t appear to exist to win ahead of Danny van Poppel (Team Sky) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis).

Overnight race leader Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) kept his leader's jersey.

Such a remarkable and unexpected win – given that the break looked on course to decide the stage – that Sagan immediately made a beeline for the nearest television monitor to witness what he had just achieved. He came from no where, and through a line of Marcel Kittel, Bouhanni and the desperate late lunges of the break, to send a major message ahead of next month’s World Championships.

It was a win snatched from the jaws of defeat but for the break, who unravelled spectacularly in the closing metres, it was wasted opportunity.

They had toiled in the autumnal Belgian weather for almost the entire stage and at one point held a lead of over six minutes.

Martin Elmiger (IAM Cycling), Jesper Asselman (Roompot), Mark McNally (Wanty Groupe Gobert), Stijn Steels (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), and Yukiya Arashiro (Lampre Merida) cooperated perfectly in the opening kilometres.

First they set about establishing their lead and once they had completed their first task they turned their attentions to the all-important consolidation.

The bunch, led by BMC Racing and the yellow jersey of Rohan Dennis, made sure that the five leaders never had too much rope, especially with Elmiger starting the stage at just 23 seconds off the lead.

The IAM Cycling rider, in the autumn of his career, clearly feels as though his time within the sport is not up and he took nine seconds in bonuses as the race headed into the finale.

With 20 kilometres to go everything looked on course for the predicted bunch sprint with the break at less than two minutes and a collage of sprinters’ teams on the front.

The problem, however, was that despite the general interest not one team was willing to fully commit to the chase. The result: a lot of hand gesturing from the likes of Lars Bak, and little in the way of commitment.

Meanwhile, Elmiger, who was a 2000 trainee with Saeco back in the day, dragged the break along. Laurent Dufaux, Armin Meier, Dario Pieri and Mario Scirea have long since left the sport but Elmiger and his present companions still held 1:23 with 13 kilometres to go.

When Etixx-QuickStep rolled out Tony Martin and BMC did likewise with Daniel Oss, it looked as though the break would finally relent but even with the help of Katusha, Cofidis and Cannondale the beak remained with a healthy enough gap. Or so it seemed.

As they passed under the final 1,000 metres hesitation began to creep in and where there was once confidence was now doubt.

It was all the peloton needed, and even though the break opened up their sprint with 150 metres to go, the peloton had all the momentum.

Call it luck if you will but whereas Kittel and the majority of the other sprinters found themselves blocked in by the scattering of breakaway riders, Sagan was faultless.

It looked as though he was moving at a different speed, in a different race, effortlessly gliding through gaps before emerging through the centre to take the stage.

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