For the second day in a row, Theo Bos and Moreno Hofland made it a 1-2 for Belkin at the Tour of Hainan when the duo dominated the bunch kick that ended the third stage of the race. The win Bos' 8th of the season and so the sprinter reached his pre-season target of beating last year's tally of 7.

Belkin completely dominated the first two stages of the Tour of Hainan but the Dutch team has no intention of slowing down. Today the team delivered another demonstration of force when Theo Bos, Moreno Hofland and Lars Boom finished 1st, 2nd and 4th for the second day in a row.

The team had everything under control throughout the race and brought back the final escapee with 3km to go. From there, their strong team took control with Boom delivering Bos perfectly to the line while overall leader Hofland was once again allowed to stay in Bos' wheel to finish 2nd and so extend his lead.

Being surrounded by a strong team, Bos had all the prerequisites to take another win and he was full of praise for his teammates.

“It’s been a similar race as yesterday”, he said. “A breakaway went but not very early and only one of our guys, Marc Goos, was able to set the pace of the bunch and chase by himself.”

“Some other teams were looking for time bonus at the end, so the last 20km went pretty fast”, he added. “But we managed to hit the front and put our train in place. Lars Boom capped it off and gave me the way really close to the finish. He made it easy for us. We could repeat the same tactic with Moreno following me.”

Since he switched from track to road cycling after the Beijing Olympics, Bos had the goal to win one more race every year. At Le Tour de Langkawi in February this year, he said he was unsure of his target after he exceeded his expected score in 2012 with seven victories. Stage 2 of the Tour of Hainan saw him reaching eight wins during the 2013 season. “It’s nice to break a record”, he said. “But maybe I should stop it there, otherwise I won’t know what to do next year. Anyway, we’ll try to get the most of this race as a team with winning more sprints and GC.”

Hofland confident he can win the race

By finishing 2nd, Hofland picked up 6 bonus seconds and so extended his overall lead to 33 seconds over 2nd placed Frederic Amorison. The race usually favours the sprinters but later in the 9-stage event, a couple of hilly stages await the riders.

Hofland is, however, a versatile rider that can both sprint and climb and so he feels that he has a good chance of taking the overall win in the final race of his first professional season.

“If possible, one day I’ll try to pass Theo”, he said with a smile. “But when he sprints over 50km/h, he’s hard to beat. Only if a finish is uphill, we can go for a different result. For now, we’re gonna keep the same tactic. I’m confident I can keep the yellow jersey in the hills [in stage 7 and 8] because I could climb well at the Tour of Beijing.”

Sports director Michiel Elijzen was delighted to see his team control things throughout the entire race.

"We finished first, second and fourth with the same three guys as yesterday and the race itself was identical as well”, he said. "The first 70 kilometres were full throttle. We, just like yesterday, covered every attack until a controllable group of six was formed. After that Marc Goos did great at working hard to keep things under control. At the three kilometre mark, the last attackers were caught."

“Our sprint train is just super-strong. Theo was dropped off with 150 metres to go and won after a brief but intense sprint.” 

Manan hopes to win a stage

Anuar Manan (Synergy Baku) finished 2nd in the final intermediate sprint and so picked up two bonus seconds that allowed him to take over the Asian riders' jersey. As a former stage winner in the race, the Malaysian sprinter is, however, more focussed on repeating those past feats.

“Aa stage win at the Tour of Hainan is my goal more than the blue jersey, which is hard to keep for a sprinter although the profile is not so bad this year”, he said. “I’ve won a stage at this race in 2008 and 2011, last year I got a second place. This year, there are a lot of strong sprinters but I think I can still win. I believe in myself and I believe in my team-mates.”

Metlushenko happy with third

Two months away from turning 38, Yuriy Metlushenko proved that age doesn’t matter much in cycling as he was the first rider behind the winning duo of Belkin on the finishing line of stage 3 even though he’s the oldest cyclist on the start list of the 2013 Tour of Hainan.

“Congratulations to team Belkin, they were really fast to take first and second place again”, he said. “I want to thank my team. I sent my team-mate [Aandriy Vasylyuk] up the road to make things easier for me in the peloton. All the riders helped me to achieve the top 3 today. I’m very happy.”

The former Giro d’Italia participant (during his first pro year in 2002) is no stranger to racing in China as he has done the Tour of Qinghai Lake six times, the Tour of Taihu Lake twice and this is his fourth time taking part in the Tour of Hainan where he previously won two stages.

“This is very good race”, he said. “People are very nice, hotels are beautiful. I also love to race in China because there are a lot of bunch sprints.”

He insisted that he’s not tired of competing.

“Cycling is my life”, he added. “Thanks to my sport, I can travel the world. Chris Horner won the Vuelta at 42, so it means a lot for riders like me who get close to the end. I’d like to continue cycling forever but I understand it’s going to finish sometimes pretty soon, in one, two or three years.”

The Tour of Hainan ends on Monday.