For the second year in a row, Tom Dumoulin took the leader's jersey in the Eneco Tour when he finished second in today's stage in Flanders. However, the Dutchman hadn't targeted the lead but was more focused on the stage win.

Tom Dumoulin has assumed the race lead at the Eneco Tour after a powerful finish on stage five to take second and the six bonus seconds that go with it. Dumoulin went into the day with a two second deficit but ended the day with a two second buffer over second place Lars Boom (Belkin Pro Cycling).

The stage was the first day of the race to hit the hills, taking in the Geraardsbergen and as expected it was an action packed stage, but in the end a compact front group came into the finish together with Greg van Avermaet (BMC) taking the uphill sprint to the line.

The stage was the first day of the race in the hills and Dumoulin and the team were well prepared for this.  small breakaway formed early on and spent most of the day ahead while behind the peloton waited to pounce before the real fight got underway.

As the peloton approached the leaders the attacks started to come and the repetitive climbs including ascents of the Muur saw the bunch thin rapidly.

Dumoulin never really looked in trouble and even when race leader Boom got away late on he didn’t panic and gradually rode across the gap. The front group was grouped coming into the final kilometres and Dumoulin had Roy Curvers, Reinardt Janse van Rensburg and Simon Geschke with him until late on to protect and position him.

After the base of the final ramp to the line van Avermaet jumped from a long way and Dumoulin had tom come from a long way back, just running out of from to catch him before the finish but he did enough for second and picked up the key bonus time to take over the race lead.

After the stage, the new race leader said: “Before the stage it was not my goal to become leader today but I wanted to go for the victory as I felt really good. I was the fastest over the final 500m in the bunch but I was slightly out of position at the bottom of the climb and Greg was too far ahead already.

“I feel in superb condition – the Tour did me good and I hope to hold onto the overall lead now after today. Even though I did not plan on taking the lead it is not bad to be leading heading into the last two stages. There are people we have to watch tomorrow and it will be a tough race but we will make a good plan and our team is strong.

Team coach Addy Engels added: ”The situation was good today with a small break up the road so the big fight started later on making it easier for us to stay grouped as a team.

“The plan was to stay together and save our efforts for later if possible. We still had enough guys late on to control the race and help to position Tom.

“He did a great job and didn’t panic when groups got away. Tom’s strength is he can maintain a very fast pace for a long time and we saw him close gaps with ease today.

“Two seconds is of course a small gap but it is better to be two ahead than two behind. We saw last year that the race suits him well and I think that with his shape and the strong team around him we can do something really nice.

“We showed today that we were the only team that could control in the final and we have a great team for tomorrow too.”