Greg Henderson kept pace with the his main sprint rivals on the prologue of Ster Elektrotoer, but it was Rabobank who dominated the stage by claiming four of the top five positions in Gemert.

Henderson was looking lean after last month's Giro d'Italia and powered around the 6.8km circuit in seven minutes and 59 seconds. That time was quicker than the likes of Robert Förster and Baden Cooke, but 17 seconds adrift of eventual winner Jos Van Emden, who pipped team-mates Lars Boom and Sebastian Langeveld to the leader's jersey.

Ian Stannard was the next highest-ranked Team Sky rider in 36th place, 11 seconds behind Henderson, with Mathew Hayman (49th), Chris Sutton (51st), Peter Kennaugh (70th), Russell Downing (84th), Davide Viganò (103rd) and John-Lee Augustyn (108th) rounding out the standings.

Back on the team bus, Steven de Jongh was pleased to see Henderson deliver a solid ride and believes that performance will bode well for the days to come.

He said: "Some of our guys were a bit disappointed to have lost the time that they did but there were some strong winds today and that will have played a part.

"Greg delivered a really good ride though and he'll be looking to claw back some bonus seconds in the days to come which will hopefully see him right up there in the general classification.

"Tomorrow's stage is flat for most of the day before a few small climbs emerge on the final circuit. I'm still expecting a bunch sprint though and hopefully Greg will be in contention at the end there. We're all looking forward to it."