Hansen wins stage, claims leader's jersey

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Adam Hansen (Team HTC-Columbia) took his first victory of the season today, winning the 194km third stage of the Ster Elektrotoer in La Gileppe. The 29-year-old Australian outsprinted Laurent Beruet of CarmioOro-NGC and Johan Coenen of Topsport Vlaanderen for the win. Hansen also took over the leader's jersey.

"Everybody in the team worked really well to make sure I got in the right move," said Hansen, winning for the first time since his Australian time trial championship in 2008. "Then there was a final circuit with two laps and the second last time up the climb on it, I formed a group of five guys, trying to get rid of the other general classification riders.

"Finally I attacked at the bottom of the last ascent three kilometres from the finish and that bought me some time. I opened up the sprint with about 200 metres to go. I know my limits well and I started to fade with about five metres left, so I think I got it right!"

The top three for the stage were part of a large escape group which got away on the race's queen stage, and built up a lead of over nine minutes on the peloton. They finished a few seconds ahead of their nearest chasers. The remaining riders from the break finished up to nearly nine minutes down, while the peloton crossed the finish line at 16:13.

The final stage of the Elektrotoer race is a flat 174km from Arcen to Helmond, and Hansen says he and his team will have two reasons to fight to keep the race together. "We'll be setting things up for André [Greipel] in a bunch sprint, and try to defend my jersey at the same time. It's a good stage for André."