Greg Van Avermaet of the BMC Racing Team finished third Saturday at the Eneco Tour of Benelux and moved into fifth overall while teammate Philippe Gilbert was ninth and climbed into eighth in the standings with one day to go.

A day after Van Avermaet soloed to the stage win on the Muur van Geraardsbergen, he and Gilbert found themselves heavily marked in the 173.9-kilometer race that wound its way through Gilbert's home region, finishing on La Redoute.

"We tried to do the same as yesterday," Van Avermaet said. "But Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant-Shimano) was controlling us and really looking at Phil and me. So it was hard to get away. We are not so far away from fourth place, so maybe we can try tomorrow to come a little bit closer. Some guys are maybe thinking it is over, but tomorrow is another hard day."

Tim Wellens (Lotto-Belisol) soloed to the stage win, 50 seconds ahead of Lars Boom (Belkin Pro Cycling) and 52 seconds in front of Van Avermaet to take the overall lead from Dumoulin, who dropped to third behind Boom. Van Avermaet and Gilbert are 34 and 48 seconds off the lead, respectively, with Van Avermaet only one second out of fourth. Gilbert said he is feeling better after being sick for a time last month, but said he is still not 100 percent.

"In the final, I am always there, but just not able to make the difference," the former world road champion said. "Today, everyone expected us to work and contribute. But it was a bad situation because nobody wanted to help."

The BMC Racing Team did its share of the work to chase an eight-man breakaway, first using Rohan Dennis and Daniel Oss before Silvan Dillier made a hard pace the second time up La Redoute.

"When Wellens went on the final climb, it was up to Boom to start chasing because his GC (general classification) was in danger," BMC Racing Team Sporting Manager Allan Peiper said. "Greg profited from that situation, staying behind Dumoulin and beating him in the sprint and he nearly caught Boom on the line."

The day's only casualty was BMC Racing Team's Manuel Quinziato who slipped from third overall out of the top 10.

"If you are racing to win and racing for GC and the stage, at some point, things are going to explode," Peiper said. "The way the race went, we had to race that way. Every other team was watching us."