Moreno Hofland took his third professional win as Belkin continued their massive domination in today's penultimate stage of the Tour of Hainan. With 8 out of 8 stages already in their pocket, Hofland now hopes that the team will make it a clean sweep on tomorrow's final stage where the young Dutchman is also set to celebrate his first overall victory in a stage race.

In today's penultimate stage of the Tour of Hainan, Belkin may not have taken the first four places as they did yesterday but the Dutch team still made a demonstration of force when Moreno Hofland took his third and the team's eighth win. Once again, the stage was decided in a sprint and Hofland narrowly edged out Vitaliy Buts (Ukraine) in the final dash to the line.

The stage was not expected to produce major damage but turned out to be the hardest so far. Several riders from the top 10 got dropped along the way and so lost all hopes of a high overall placing.

Belkin sprinter Theo Bos also lost contact with the main group and so sprinting duties once again fell onto the shoulders of Hofland. The Dutchman - who hadn't won a professional race when he lined up in Hainan last Sunday - benefited from another splendid lead-out by Lars Boom and added another win to his growing tally.

Hofland admitted that the stage had been tougher than expected.

“On paper it was an easier stage than two days ago”, he said. “But the riders made it a harder race in the second category climb [with 65km to go]. The peloton split in different groups. We were five Belkin riders at the front so the situation was good for us but Theo [Bos] was dropped. The CCC Polsat team controlled the race in the hills zone to get the points for the KOM [for polka dot jersey Mateusz Taciak who maintained his lead]. We helped them a bit and managed to keep the race under control.”

"The scenario was similar to all previous stages," he added. "There were some attacks and after that we controlled the group. That went on until we had to take on three climbs just before the final. With five riders, we controlled the first group. Eventually, we decided to set up the sprint train and try to take the win. I have to say, the guys did a proper lead-out."

However, the Belkin string of successes was about to come to an end as Hofland got boxed in shortly before the line. Only a quick reaction from Boom allowed him to get clear and pass Buts just before the line.

“200 metres before the line, I got boxed in”, he described. “But Boom moved to the right. It opened a gap for me and the outcome was very good."

Belkin has accused for being too greedy at the Chinese race where they haven't allowed their rivals any space to excel. Being close to making a clean sweep in the Chinese race, Hofland has, however, no intention of changing the team's approach on tomorrow's final stage.

"That [to win the final stage] would be great," he said. “We have worked hard for that all week. Tomorrow’s stage is almost completely flat so I expect a bunch sprint. We have won eight out of eight, we want to win the ninth stage, as well."

With today's win, Hofland extended his overall lead over 2nd-placed Frederic Amorison to 1.07 and it seems that only a disaster can deny him his first stage race victory as a professional. However, he keeps a cautious approach ahead of the final 148km stage.

"Tomorrow I am also set to take my first overall victory as a pro, that’s pretty special especially because this is my first year as a pro," he said. "But I must stay aware that the peloton is really nervous and every second, something can happen. It’s another 148 kilometres to go. We’ll celebrate the Tour of Hainan only after winning it really.”