Taylor Phinney (BMC) has been riding strongly in the first part of the Eneco Tour and was sitting in 6th on GC after a top 10 finish in the uphill finish of stage 2. Yesterday he had bad luck with a crash that almost saw him lose time in the crosswinds but his teammates saved their captain who still targets a top result.

As a classics and time trial specialist, Taylor Phinney is perfectly suited to the Eneco Tour and it is now wonder that the American has red-circled the WorldTour event on his calendar. Having already finished 4th two years ago, the American is hopeful that he will be able to improve on that result.

Top 10 finishes on stages 1 and 2 and 2 bonus seconds picked up on the first day have set him well up for a good result but yesterday all his plans were almost derailed when a crash took him down.

Luckily, he is relatively unscathed.

 "Some guys touched wheels, it's nervous in the bunch, so there's a lot of really heavy, sudden braking and I found myself on the wrong side of somebody's wheel," he said. "The road rash isn't too bad but I hit my head a little bit and I've got to be careful of that because I have had head injuries in the past. But I don't think it is anything too bad."

Phinney had barely made it back to the peloton when Omega Pharma-Quick Step attacked in the crosswinds and split the peloton into pieces. BMC teammates Philippe Gilbert and Klaas Lodewyck made it into the first group but with Phinney in the big peloton behind, BMC had to join forces with Radioshack and Orica-GreenEdge to bring it back together.

"Danilo Wyss brought me back and then Daniel Oss, Amaël Moinard, Manuel Quinziato and again, Danilo, rode really hard to make it back," Phinney said. "I'm really thankful to them."

Sports director Yvon Ledanois was happy to get safely through another day and is looking ahead to the big GC days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It was not an easy day," he said. "It was very nervous and for the last 60 kilometers, the whole team was at the front."

First of all the BMC have riders have to survive another flat stage today before they get to Friday's crucial time trial. Starting at 14.25 you can follow the stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.