Chris Opie finished fifth on the second and final stage of the Ronde van Midden Nederland in Utrecht on Sunday.
Alfdan de Decker, of Lotto Soudal’s under-23 team, sprinted to glory, with Team Veloconcept’s Michael Carbel Svendgaard and Max Kanter, of Team Sunweb’s development squad, completing the podium positions.
Meanwhile, ONE Pro Cycling held on to the overall following their victory in the stage one team time trial, with Kamil Gradek clinching the general classification win by two seconds from a trio of his team-mates.
Stage two was a 197.3km road race around twisty Dutch roads. And while BIKE Channel Canyon were represented in early moves they did not make the eventual break of four.
But it mattered little as that move, which included Ide Schelling, Mitchell Mulhern, Carl Frederik Hagen and Marco Doets, was never given much rope before being swallowed up inside the final 10km.
That left teams getting their sprinters into position for a bunch kick, which ultimately went the way of de Decker, with Opie having to make do with fifth place in the race he won last season.
Tim Elverson’s squad did grab a consolation, though. With James Lowsley-Williams and Harry Tanfield crossing the line in 23rd and 24th respectively, they won the day’s team classification.
Meanwhile back in England, Alex Richardson finished sixth and collected the combativity prize at the Victor Berlemont national B road race in Oxfordshire.
