Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) underlined his status as one of the best riders for shorter time trials when he took a fabulous win in the stage 5 race against the clock in the Eneco Tour. Beating Tom Dumoulin (Argos-Shimano) and Jesse Sergent (Radioshack) by 4 seconds, he moved into 2nd on GC, just 4 seconds behind Lars Boom (Belkin) who finished 10th to narrowly defend his leader's jersey.

Sylvain Chavanel finished 2nd overall in the Eneco Tour last year and today he set himself well up for a similarly good result in this year's edition of the Dutch/Belgian race by taking a convincing win in the short 13,2km time trial. Already fastest at the intermediate check, he crossed the line in a time of 16.04 to dispose Jesse Sergent from the hot seat.

His time stood firm when the final 25 riders crossed the line as Tom Dumoulin who started just  minutes after Chavanel emerged as his biggest threat, narrowly beating Sergent by fractions of a second. Hence, the Frenchman took his third big time trial win of the season after his wins in the Three Days of De Panne and his national championships.

The big question was whether it would also be enough for him to take over the leader's jersey from overnight leader Lars Boom (Belkin). The Dutchman had started the day 24 seconds ahead of his French rival but at the intermediate check, he had already lost 7 of those.

The defending champion kept losing time all the way to the finish but as he crossed the line in 16.24 to finish 10th, he narrowly kept the lead with a 4-second margion over Chavanel who moves into 2nd. Dumoulin is now 3rd overall on the back of another outstanding time trial performance that underlines his potential as one of the future time trial stars.

Big stage favourite Bradley Wiggins (Sky) was an early starter and his time of 16.13 was the best with a clear margin when he crossed the line. As the GC contenders started to roll in, he was, however, relegated from the top step, ultimately finishing a distant 5th.

Sergent was the rider to create the surprise when most thought that Wiggins was about to take the win. Having already beaten the Brit at the intermediate check, the winner of the 2011 time trial at the event kept his pace all the way to the line to take3rd on the day.

Sebastian Langeveld (Orica-GreenEdge) has stayed attentive throughout the first four stages and today he underlined that he has his peak condition for his home event. His time of 16.10 was good enough for 4th on the day and he now finds himself in 5th on GC, 10 seconds behind Boom.

Taylor Phinney (BMC) was expected to be Wiggins' most likely challenger but the American had a disappointing ride and could only manage 6th. He remains in GC contention as he sits in 4th behind Boom, Chavanel and Dumoulin in the overall standings.

World road race champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC) and stage 3 winner Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) were both on a mission of limiting their losses and they did so sufficiently to remain in 6th and 8th on GC respectively. Gilbert is just 18 seconds back on Boom on GC and with two uphill finishes coming up, he finds himself in a good position to contest the overall win. Stybar is 6 seconds further back but also has a good chance of moving up over the weekend.

The first of the race's two highly anticipated classics stages comes tomorrow when the race moves into the Wallonian Ardennes for a summit finish on top of the famous Cote de la Redoute. Boom will do his utmost to resist the challenges from the likes of home rider Gilbert on a course that suits the world champion perfectly.

Starting at 14.45 you can follow the stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

Tjallingii an early leader

Sander Cordeel (Lotto-Belisol) was the first rider to start the hilly 13,2km time trial in Limburg and was the first  to get over the two climbs that featured on the course. However, he was quickly disposed from the hot seat by Evan Huffman (Astana) who enjoyed a short stint as provisional leader until Maartin Tjallingii (Belkin) lowered the mark.

Italian time trial specialist Manuele Boaro (Saxo-Tinkoff) was the next to move into the hot heat, only to see his time being comfortably beaten by Wiggins less than 2 minutes later. The Brit remained race leader for a long time, holding off the challenges posed by Gert Steegmans (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Koen De Kort (Argos-Shimano), Jos Van Emden (Belkin) and Svein Tuft (Orica-GreenEdge).

Bennati gets close

Wiggins got a scare when Daniele Bennati (Saxo-Tinkoff) passed the intermediate check in a time that was 4 seconds faster than the Brit's but at the finish, the Italian had lost his momentum and had given away 19 seconds to his rival on the powerful last part. Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEdge) was the next to pose a threat but the Australian champion was only good enough for a provisional 3rd.

Sergent was the rider to finally dispose Wiggins from the lead when he crossed the line in a time that was 5 seconds faster than the Sky leader's and the Kiwi stayed in the hot seat while Bob Jungels (Radioshack), Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil), Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Maxime Monforrt (Radioshack), a surprisingly strong Vladimir Gusev (Katusha) and Andriy Grivko (Astana) failed to beat him.

Chavanel takes the lead

That all changed when Chavanel powered across the line to lower the mark by 4 seconds and from then on the Frenchman faced a long wait. Dumoulin and Langeveld were the riders to get closest while Phinney had a disappointing ride.

When Gilbert and Stybar had finished their riders far behind, Boom was the final GC rider on the course. The defending champion dug deep but ultimately had to settle for 10th which was, however, enough for him to keep his leader's jersey on the eve of the challenging weekend stages.

Result:

1. Sylvain Chavanel 16.04

2. Tom Dumoulin +0.04

3. Jesse Sergent +0.04

4. Sebastian Langeveld +0.06

5. Bradley Wiggins +0.09

6. Taylor Phinney +0.11

7. Vladimir Gusev +0.14

8. Lieuwe Westra +0.17

9. Andriy Grivko +0.18

10. Lars Boom +0.20

General classification:

1. Lars Boom 16.22.39

2. Sylvain Chavanel +0.04

3. Tom Dumoulin +0.08

4. Taylor Phinney

5. Sebastian Langeveld +0.10

6. Philippe Gilbert +0.18

7. Andriy Grivko +0.23

8. Zdenek Stybar +0.24

9. Vladimir Gusev +0.25

10. Ian Stannard +0.26

Points classification:

1. Andre Greipel 75

2. Lars Boom 73

3. Giacomo Nizzolo 66

4. Taylor Phinney 47

5. Alessandro Petacchi 47

6. Maximiliano Richeze 44

7. Pieter Jacobs 37

8. Tyler Farrar 37

9. Laurens De Vreese 31

10. Sylvain Chavanel 30

Sprints classification:

1. Laurens De Vreese 66

2. Matthew Hayman 36

3. Pieter Jacobs 30

4. Tim Declercq 28

5. Benjamin Verraes 22

6. Gediminas Bagdonas 22

7. Jelle Wallays 18

8. Pim Ligthart 10

9. Matthieu Ladagnous 8

10. Matti Breschel 8

Teams classification:

1. Omega Pharma-Quick Step 49.08.46

2. Orica-GreenEdge

3. Belkin +0.30

4. BMC

5. Radioshack +0.36

6. Katusha +0.54

7. Saxo-Tinkoff +1.15

8. Argos-Shimano +1.29

9. Sky +1.40

10. Astana +1.54