Katusha has gone into the Eneco Tour with the hope that Viacheslav Kuznetsov and Pavel Brutt can mix it up with the best in the GC. As none of them are GC specialists, today's stage was all about limiting the losses.

Stage 3 in the Eneco Tour on Wednesday brought a quick 9,6 km time trial in Breda. For Team Katusha it was a day to keep the legs warmed up and stay close to the race lead.

"The main thing for today's stage was not to lose too much time and to be close in general classification," team director Torsten Schmidt said. "We have Viacheslav Kuznetsov who has ambitions for the overall, so would be nice to see him in full action for the next decisive stages, which will come during the week-end. Also, Pavel Brutt is in very good shape.

"Today we could not expect much from our riders, because they are not really specialists in TT, but I can mention that all of our guys did 100% in the race and they can be happy with the final results of the stage. We took the maximum possible from the stage and now we are looking forward for the next days."

Needing to make up only one second, Lars Boom took over the general classification and holds four seconds to Manuel Quinziato (BMC) after three stages in the Eneco Tour. The best Team performance for Katusha came from Gatis Smukulis in 21st place at 31-seconds. For the GC, Pavel Brutt remains the best Katusha rider in 13th place at 25-seconds with four stages still to race. 

The Eneco Tour continues on Thursday with stage 4 from Koksijde to Ardooie at 183.3 km. It’s flat and should be a day for the sprinters.