Having already won a stage in last year's Tour of Alberta, Silvan Dillier (BMC) continued his impressive start to his professional career when he finished 5th in the Three Days of West-Flanders prologue. The young Belgian now hopes to ride aggressively in the road stages to move onto the final podium.

Silvan Dillier's fifth-place performance led five BMC Racing Team finishers in the top 25 Friday in the prologue of Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen. The 7.0-kilometer, looping, out-and-back course featured a nearly flat profile with a headwind-going-out and tailwind finish.

Gert Joeaar (Cofidis, Solutions Credits) was one of only two riders to break the eight-minute mark, winning in a time of 7:53. Johan Le Bon (FDJ.fr) was runner-up in 7:58 and Kristof Vandewalle (Trek Factory Racing) was third in 8:01. Dillier, the reigning Swiss national elite time trial champion, clocked an 8:07, 14 seconds off the winning time. Past Swiss national time trial champion Martin Kohler was 15th (8:15), followed by Rick Zabel in 18th (8:18), Klaas Lodewyck in 22nd (8:19), and Danilo Wyss in 24th (8:20).

"When I went out, there was a little bit less wind than the guys who went about one hour before me," Dillier said. "The early guys had little bit more headwind going out. But on the way back, I had less of a tailwind than they had, so it was harder to keep the speed. But I still did a good ride and I am happy."

"I was actually surprised that some of the times got so good," sports director Jackson Stewart said. "We staggered Rick Zabel and Silvan Dillier because we knew the wind was forecast to die down. But it really didn't seem like it died down. Now we will ride for the stages and be aggressive and hope to make the selections in Stage 1 and 2. They both have the Belgian climbs, so we're just looking to make those selections and see what we can do."

Saturday's opening road stage of the three-day race features the climbs of Oude Kwaremont and the Tiegemberg in 182.9 km from Brugge to Harelbeke.

Dillier said: "For me, it would be better if we can make some splits somewhere and then finish with a group of 20, and then I try to do the sprint from there, instead of doing the sprint with the whole bunch. For me, that's the better option."