Harry Tanfield beat World Tour stars such as Sep Vanmarcke as he powered to third place in the 62nd Sint-Elooisprijs in Ruddervoorde.
Victory went to Lawrence Naesen, of Veranclassic Aqua Protect, ahead of Lotto Soudal’s Jelle Wallays as the pair broke away to duel for glory.
Tanfield, meanwhile, attacked and dropped the remainder of the day’s 14-man break to finish solo, around 30 seconds adrift.
It was a remarkable effort from the 22-year-old, who was making his maiden appearance in a pro kermesse in Belgium.
And he was delighted with the performance, particularly as it came against a star-studded field full of World Tour talent. Tanfield said:
“It was an outrageous race and a decent result for my first pro kermesse ever. I knew it was mega windy warming up and the race was in pieces after just 2km
“I rode across to a front group of eight or so. A Topsport guy, a lad from Lotto and Sep Vanmarcke were driving it so hard.
“I don’t know how I got across! I was well north of 600w getting over there but I knew it was do or die and fortunately I made it.”
Rory Townsend, Jake Womersley and Alex Richardson were also representing BIKE Channel Canyon in the 170km contest.
As the race split up, their challenge was snuffed out. But Tanfield kicked on, pulling hard in a stellar break which also included Team Sunweb’s Zico Waeytens and Lotto’s Kris Boeckmans and Jasper de Buyst.
When the race approached its finale, Wallays and Naesen got away leaving the rest to scrap for the final spot on the podium.
Tanfield attacked Cannondale-Drapac’s Vanmarcke with 3km to go, dropping him and bridging to two more escapees in the gap.
The Great Ayton talent, who won the most aggressive rider jersey on stage two of the Tour de Yorkshire in April, worked with them until the flamme rouge when he made his move.
Tanfield quickly powered clear. It was too late to catch Naesen and Wallays but he made certain of a podium as he crossed the line around 30 seconds in arrears.
The superb result comes on the back of Tanfield’s ninth place in the Memorial Philippe van Coningsloo on Sunday.
