Belkin played a key role in today's stage of the Eneco Tour when the Dutch team rode hard in the finale when race favourite had punctured. However, the team refuses that they were riding to distance their rival and claims that they wanted to win the stage in Lars Boom's home town of Vlijmen.

Lars Boom came up too short to pull off a gigantic Eneco Tour coup in his hometown Vlijmen today. The Belkin Pro Cycling TEAM rider lost the sprint to Zdenek Stybar and missed out on the white leader’s jersey. Boom sits second overall, just one second behind the Czech of Omega Pharma-QuickStep. As a consolation prize, Boom was awarded the red point’s jersey.

Sep Vanmarcke and Bauke Mollema showed the strength of the team by finishing third and eighth.

“I came a little closer to a victory than last year, when I finished thid here,” said Boom. “The pace was very high in the sprint. I was able to find Stybar’s rear wheel, but nothing more. The boys worked very hard. First they closed a gap and later they led the pack all by themselves. They rode a very strong race.”
 

Boom already looked ahead to Wednesday, when he has another chance to take the leader’s jersey in a 9.6-kilometre time trial.

“The time trial suits me, but Stybar’s able to extend his lead as well. I'll focus on the overall this week. When I remain focused, I can go a long way.”
 

Sports Director Merijn Zeeman enjoyed the teamwork of his riders.

“We wanted to take the stage victory today. It is unfortunate that Lars wasn’t able to outsprint Stybar, but we have done very well as a team.”

Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) punctured in the final. When the competitor for the overall victory flatted, the race was at its peak already," said Zeeman.

“At that point, we were already pulling for twenty kilometres. There were still three riders leading as well, so we couldn’t simply stop riding when Dumoulin was hindered by that flat tyre.”