After his prologue win, Philippe Gilbert lost the leader's jersey to Marcel Kittel in yesterday's queen stage. Today he remained in contention by scoring two bonus seconds in the final intermediate sprint and is now ready for tomorrow's Ardennes queen stage where he is the big favourite to win.

Philippe Gilbert of the BMC Racing Team remains within seven seconds of the lead and in fourth place overall heading into the final two days of the Ster ZLM Toer. Gilbert finished 12th on Friday's stage as Greg Henderson (Lotto-Belisol) soloed in just ahead of the bunch sprint at the end of the 190.5-kilometer race.

Gilbert also earned a few bonus seconds by finishing runner-up in the second of two intermediate sprints as Marcel Kittel (Team Giant-Shimano) kept the overall lead.

"In the bonification sprint and in the final, the guys did a good job of helping Philippe – especially Sebastian Lander, Rick Zabel and Klaas Lodewyck," BMC Racing Team Sport Director Valerio Piva said.

Yannick Eijssen represented the BMC Racing Team in one of two significant breakaways on the day. In the first, Gilbert and Ben Hermans were in a 30-man escape, while the breakaway including Eijssen was brought back in the last 20 kilometers.

Saturday's 186.7 km stage will be much move pivotal to the overall, Piva said.