HTC-Columbia’s Adam Hansen has powered into the overall lead of the Ster Elektotoer race in Belgium with an impressive victory on stage three. Hansen won a small group sprint on a very hilly 194-kilometer stage from Verviers to La Gileppe, simultaneously shifting up from eighteenth overall into the top spot on general classification. Hansen’s win is the thirtieth of the 2010 season for HTC-Columbia men’s team.

Celebrating his first victory since he was Australian national time trial champion back in 2008, Hansen said, “Everybody in the team worked really well to make sure I got in the right move. Then there was a final circuit with two laps and the second last time up the climb on it, I formed a group of five guys, trying to get rid of the other general classification riders. Finally I attacked at the bottom of the last ascent three kilometers from the finish and that bought me some time. I opened up the sprint with about 200 meters to go. I know my limits well and I started to fade with about five meters left, so I think I got it right!”

The final stage of the Elektrotoer race is a flat 174-kilometre run from Arcen to Helmond in the Netherlands, and Hansen says he and HTC-Columbia will have two reasons to fight to keep the race together. “We’ll be setting things up for André [Greipel] in a bunch sprint, and try to defend my jersey at the same time. It’s a good stage for André.”

Hansen’s victory comes on the same day that HTC-Columbia’s Ina-Yoko Teutenberg took a stage win in the Giro di Trentino in Italy.