Harry Tanfield claimed a gutsy second place in the Midden Brabant Poort Omloop as Julius van den Berg sprinted to glory in Gilze.
The Canyon Eisberg man produced a tireless ride as he twice gapped the peloton, attacked out of the decisive split and then narrowly missed out on a memorable victory in the 200km Dutch tear-up.
His efforts in the early breakaway did not go unrewarded, though, as he scooped the intermediate sprints prize in the UCI 1.2 contest.
Van den Berg, of the SEG Racing Academy, beat Tanfield to the line by a few bike lengths with Monkey Town’s Rick van Breda completing the top three.
Meanwhile, an intelligent ride by Charles Page saw the 19-year-old tag on to a select chase group before finishing eighth. Ryan Christensen was 24th.
It is the second successive year Canyon Eisberg have been runners-up in the race after Rory Townsend was edged out by millimetres last season.
Tanfield escaped in the day’s main move and he had a quintet of Dutch riders for company.
The 23-year-old was joined by Alecto’s Folkert Oostra, Beat’s Daniel Abraham Gebru, Bas Ottevanger, of the Vlasman Cycling Team, Delta Cycling’s Jason van Dalen and Lars Oreel, of Destil-Parkhotel Valkenburg.
The six-man group was never given too much rope by the peloton, though. And after three hours of racing Oreel was the first to suffer.
Half an hour later – and with the bunch within 30 seconds – a puncture put paid to van Dalen’s involvement.
With around 90 minutes of racing left, the remainder of his companions were reeled in – despite a valiant solo bid by Gebru to stave off the catch.
But by that stage, Tanfield already had one hand on the prize for the cobbled intermediate sprints.
Clearly not content, the Canyon Eisberg man then fought his way into a new 12-man group which clipped off inside the final 30km.
He had team-mate Page for company this time, while Andrew Tennant and Kiwi Christensen were safely ensconced in a second group on the road.
Then with one lap of the finishing circuit remaining, Tanfield went again with van den Berg and van Breda.
A valiant attempt to bridge was led by Gert-Jan Bosman, of VolkerWessels-Merckx, with Page tagging on to that move.
But it quickly became clear the 2018 Midden Brabant Poort Omloop champion would come from the leading trio.
Click here for the full result, when it is published.