BMC Racing Team's Philippe Gilbert had time to freewheel his bike across the finish line and raise one arm in celebration Monday as he captured Stage 3 of the Tour de Wallonie.

Gilbert attacked in the final 800 meters of the uphill climb to the finish at the end of the 207-kilometer race. He soloed in four seconds ahead of Pieter Serry (Etixx-Quick Step), who won a reduced bunch sprint ahead of Thomas Sprengers (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise).

"I have done this finish a few times," Gilbert said. "I think I have won two or three times before here and been second twice and once fifth, when it was a Giro d'Italia stage (in 2006). So I knew the final really well."

It was Gilbert's second win in the past six days. The 2012 world road champion had been sidelined by a knee injury since June 16 when he withdrew from the Tour de Suisse before Stage 3. But last week, in his first race back, Gilbert won a bunch sprint finish at Grand Prix Cerami.

"Now my knee is OK and in my head that is a big win," he said. "I feel free. It is easier on the bike. And when you have success, you want more. So when you are in a good mood like this, you hope to keep winning. So now I hope I can get a win like this on the WorldTour so we can get some points.

"I am happy to finally win this first success in this stage race that I do for the fourth time. It is a great pleasure for me and this is very symbolic.

"Sometimes we make the mistake of riding too much and you lose some grinta. It is good to take a break and come back stronger. With time you learn that the freshness is important and this break did me good. It allowed me to come back stronger. 

"Fortunately, the break was caught. That's when I decided to do my acceleration. I immediately got a nice gap. I know what to do in this kind of finale and therefore I restarted to avoid losing speed. I knew that the finale was flat and so victory was almost guaranteed when I got there.

" We wanted to work as late as possible on Monday to exhaust Terpstra's teammates and try to benefit from that. But I think it will be hard to beat him. He is one of the best riders in the world that has a good team at his side. Barring misfortune, he will win.

" The final stage to Thuin is the one that is best for me. But my objective is first of to accumulate racing kilometres."
 

Before Gilbert's heroics, the BMC Racing Team worked hard to help reel in five riders from the day's breakaway.

"Loïc Vliegen and I had to ride pretty hard to get the last guy back because over the last climb, he still had 20 seconds," Marcus Burghart said. "Before that, Jempy Drucker and Peter Velits were doing the work and Rick Zabel was leading us out to a tricky downhill. So it was a pretty good team effort."

With two days of the race to go, Niki Terpstra (Etixx-Quick Step) still leads, having won a two-up sprint on Stage 1 by more than a minute ahead of the peloton. Vliegen climbed from seventh to fourth in the overall standings by finishing 14th, 10 seconds back of Gilbert. He is 42 seconds behind.

"What was important for us today was the victory," BMC Racing Team Sport Director Valerio Piva said. "As I said from the first day, it will be difficult to beat Terpstra. He is a strong rider and he was in the front again today in the final. So the GC (general classification) will be difficult. But we will keep trying and trying to win more stages.

"We tried to slip into the breakaway but of course they did not let us go. We had left the work Etixx-QuickStep. They controlled the entire race. At the end, we sent two riders on the offensive because the gap was still significant and we needed to close the gap to have a chance to win. The team worked well and Philippe finished the job. He remains one of the best riders in the world! And the finish suited him perfectly. He was confident, motivated and therefore, inevitably, strong. So we got our stage victory. We will now try to take a second. 

"For the GC, Loïc Vliegen is now our man. He deserves to be protected and supported. In Thuin, Van Avermaet won the race in 2013, on the last stage. So everything is still possible even though we know it will be very difficult."

"The day was stressful for everyone," Vliegen told Directvelo. "We constantly had to go back to the team car with clothes. Five and a half hours on the bike is a long time. When Serry attacked on the penultimate climb with De Marchi, Philippe told me to follow. But at the bottom of the Citadel, I found myself a bit far back. It is a shame as I passed riders without losing any space. I could not help Philippe because he was simply stronger. Personally, I am satisfied with the overall classification and my position in second place in the best young rider classification. There are now two stages and everything is still possible. "
 

Drucker kept the lead he took on Sunday in the intermediate sprints classification.

"The aim of the day was to work for Philippe Gilbert and allow him to finish his job," Drucker told Directvelo. "It's done and that's the most important. We started to chase with a little more than 50 kilometers to go when the gap was five minutes. With Peter Velits and a Tinkoff-Saxo we managed to significantly reduce the gap. It was now only 2'10 ". Then I had to let go on the penultimate climb.

"Regarding the intermediate sprints jersey, I am amazed to keep it on my shoulders. It is not an objective in itself. I'll see if there is still a possibility on the last day to keep it and to win this ranking. If this is not the case, it will not be a big disappointment."
 

Gilbert's fourth victory of the year ties him for the BMC Racing Team lead with Greg Van Avermaet. This was the BMC Racing Team's 21st win on the season.