Greg Van Avermaet of the BMC Racing Team moved up to third place overall Saturday at the Baloise Belgium Tour as French national road champion Arnaud Démare (FDJ) won from a bunch sprint for the second straight day.

Van Avermaet earned bonus seconds in the 157.5-kilometer race to move up from sixth place overnight. He was also joined by teammates Rohan Dennis and Jempy Drucker in a 12-man breakaway inside the last 20 kilometers. But the escape was brought back and Démare won ahead of Tom Boonen (Etixx-Quick Step) and Jens Debusschere (Lotto-Soudal).

"We made up three seconds on Brändle," BMC Racing Team Sport Director Max Sciandri said. "In the final sprint, we were caught up a bit in the peloton on big roads. Greg is a a good sprinter for these types of sprints, but it is still pretty hard for him to maintain position. I think the legs were there and he has the condition, but it was hard for him to get that position going."

With one day to go, Van Avermaet is eight seconds behind Matthias Brändle (IAM Cycling) while Démare is one second off the lead. Van Avermaet has twice finished runner-up at this race, in 2008 and 2011.