OPQS rider Niki Terpstra stayed with a select group going into the final kilometers of 173.3km Eneco Tour Stage 6 on Saturday, and moved into 7th in the GC after finishing 8th in the stage.
The undulating parcours left the peloton in bits once again, and Tim Wellens (Lotto-Belisol) was able to win solo out of the chaos. Lars Boom (Belkin) finished 2nd, 50" down, and Greg Van Avermat crossed the line in 3rd a couple seconds later.
A final, 183.4km Stage remains on Sunday. Expect the race to be highly animated again, with 17 different punchy climbs, with several having to be passed more than once.
"Things went really well for me today," Terpstra said. "It was a really hard stage with all these hills. But I survived really well in the front group. That was the goal for today. I made it and I moved up two positions in the GC, so I'm satisfied. Tomorrow we are in Holland. It's a race that suits me well. For the GC I will for sure defend my placement in the top 10, but maybe we can also go for a good result in the stage."
Tom Boonen is getting back into the race rhythm, having to mentally adjust to the loss of Zdenek Stybar due to a bad crash earlier in the stage race.
"I had good legs yesterday, but I really needed to find my race focus back after Stybar's crash," Boonen said. "That really played in my head and I want to end this race with a positive mind. But today I felt good. I jumped two times and then I was in the breakaway, which was good for my morale. The climbs where the parcours went on today were consistently steep. This is not really my kind of parcours, but I'm happy about my day. I know this parcours as I've trained here for about 20 years."
