After his win in the prologue, Philippe Gilbert lost the leader's jersey after today's first stage of the Ster ZLM Toer when Marcel Kittel sprinted to 10 bonus seconds. The former world champion was unconcerned by the situation and is hoping to take it back in the hiller stages later in the week.

BMC Racing Team's Philippe Gilbert finished 17th in Thursday's bunch sprint finish at the Ster ZLM Toer, but conceded the overall lead to stage winner Marcel Kittel (Team Giant-Shimano). Gilbert said he did not want to take any risks due to the rain falling at times during the 183.9-kilometer race. It made his day in the yellow jersey a nervous one, the winner of Wednesday's prologue said.

"It was very dangerous in the beginning and there was a crash," Gilbert said. "In the final, it was raining and there were a lot of little cobblestones making it very slippery and there were some more crashes."

Gilbert now sits in third place, 12 seconds off the lead and two seconds back of Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), who was third on the stage behind Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp).

BMC Racing Team Sport Director Valerio Piva said giving up the race lead was not a big concern with three stages still to go.

"The team did a good job, working hard all day and staying together," he said. "Tomorrow and Saturday's stages are more important, so we will fight to take back the jersey."