Gilbert wins ZLM Toer's third stage

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BMC Racing's Philippe Gilbert won the third stage of the Ster ZLM Toer on Saturday. The Belgium strongman made a late-race attack and stormed to the finish line ahead of Tim Wellens (Lotto Belisol) and Paul Martens (Belkin Pro Cycling), and took his second stage win at the five-day race.

"This was a nice win, but it was not an easy day,” Gilbert said. "With the headwinds on the climbs, it was not easy to make the difference."

Gilbert is now leading the race by 12 seconds ahead of Wellens and an additional six seconds ahead of Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).

Gilbert won the prologue in Baldel on Wednesday where he took the early race lead. He went into the third stage in fourth place, seven seconds behind Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano), the race leader at the start of the day. During the 186km stage, he capitalized off of the help of teammates like Ben Hermans and Samuel Sánchez, said BMC Racing Team Sport Director Valerio Piva.

Hermans bridged to a breakaway in order to force other teams to chase while Sánchez set up Gilbert's winning attack. "Samuel guided Philippe like he did in Amstel," Piva said. "In the last kilometers, he made an attack and then Philippe went and arrived alone with a gap."

The fourth and final stage is a mostly flat, 173km race from Gerwen to Boxtel on Sunday.

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