Geraint Thomas has made the Eneco Tour a big goal as the race is tailor-made for the versatile classics rider. Today, however, he suffered an unfortunate time loss when he and his Sky team missed the crucial split in the finale.

Team Sky rode hard to close down a late gap at the Eneco Tour to ensure Geraint Thomas remained in a strong position following stage two.

On the flat-out run into Vlijmen at crash at a roundabout with eight kilometres to go caused a split in the bunch with a group of around 25 riders forging clear in the rain.

Team Sky were among the teams looking to neutralise the dangerous move which produced a stage winner and new race leader in Zdenek Stybar.

The Omega Pharma – Quick-Step rider pushed hard under the flamme rouge and, despite the peloton closing in, held his nerve to kick again and take the stage.

The result moved the defending champion into a one-second lead over rival Lars Boom. The stage finished in the Dutchman’s home town and Boom was highly active in the closing kilometres after his Belkin team had helped to shut down a dangerous looking breakaway trio.

Thomas finished in a group 14 seconds back following the technical circuit and heads into Wednesday’s time trial 24 seconds back on the leader’s jersey.

“It was a typical tricky circuit today,” confirmed Sports Director Nicolas Portal at the finish. “There were so many direction changes and then heading into the final hour the pace really rose. That caused a few crashes and also a bit of a natural selection with the bunch thinning out.

“We had some bad luck as for most of the day our guys were in a good position. Then with around 10km to go they slipped back and then there was the crash on the roundabout which caused the split and this small group of less than 30 riders.

“We quickly jumped on the front of the second group and the guys were all riding hard but it was not possible to bridge across as the guys at the front were all riding the same pace. We lost some time but it is far from over. We’ll keep the motivation heading into tomorrow and we know that everyone is riding well.”