"Headwind, tailwind - up down, up down all day - and the speed was incredible. In short: we are in Belgium!"

Those were the words of Astana's Ruslan Tleubayev after stage three at the Baloise Belgium Tour.

Tleubayev spent his day racing the hilly lake region south of Charleroi in the Belgian Ardennes to keep teammates Borut Božič and Laurens De Vreese fresh for the finale.

Božič finished in the same time as stage winner Arnaud Démare of France, and is now :39 behind raceleader Matthias Brändle of Switzerland.

Sunday's final stage will feature 10 categorized climbs and will see major changes to the General Classification.