Max Stedman sprinted to ninth place in a thrilling final stage of the Rás Tailteann.
Belgian Robbe Ghys won the breathtaking finale in Skerries as Delta Cycling’s Luuc Bugter delivered a late charge to win the overall crown by a solitary second.
Ghys, Bugter and Sjoerd Bax finished clear of the peloton where Stedman delivered an unlikely challenge in the bunch kick.
Along with Canyon Eisberg team-mates Rory Townsend and Louis Rose-Davies, the 22-year-old was finishing the UCI 2.2 contest for the first time.
The trio now become men of the Rás, the prestigious honour bestowed on all those who complete the famous Irish stage race.
It is a title Dexter Gardias already possesses, despite his withdrawal on stage six with a chest infection.
And one which was cruelly snatched away from the fifth member of the Canyon Eisberg team, Matt Nowell, whose race ended after a freak crash on the Friday.
Swiss rider Cyrille Thiery had led the 2018 edition of the Rás after sprinting to victory on the opening stage last Sunday.
But Bugter and his Delta Cycling team delivered a thrilling late assault inside the final 5km of the entire race to rip the yellow jersey from his back.
Bugter also claimed the points jersey, while Ghys clinched the youth classification and the KOM crown went to Thiery’s team-mate Lukas Ruegg, with Stedman third.
The Berkshire-born climber was Canyon Eisberg’s best-placed rider in the general classification. He finished 23rd (ninth in the under-23 standings) at 3min 32sec after losing time in a brave bid for glory on Saturday.
Townsend was 39th at 23.09 and first-year professional Rose-Davies, 19, competing in his first senior stage race, was 41st at 24.09.
The break went with the first attack of stage eight as Ireland’s Marc Potts, Fraser Rounds (KTM), Holdsworth’s Russell Downing, Cork Strata 3’s Philip Lavery and Fintan Ryan, of Cycling Leinster, went clear.
Jelly Belley’s Curtis White bridged across before Saint Piran duo Jake Alderman and Cameron Jeffers followed suit to form an eight-man group.
Their lead peaked at three minutes before the peloton, led by the Swiss national squad, began to stoke up the chase.
Rounds and Ryan were the first to lose contact before Potts, White and Alderman attacked on the approach to Skerries.
The race came back together with 5km to go, prompting Bugter, who began the day 10 seconds adrift of the yellow jersey, to have one last dig for glory.
He had team-mate Bax and Ghys for company as Thiery’s squad frantically organised their chase.
But it was too little, too late as the Delta Cycling duo mugged the Swiss outfit with a superb late charge.
After Stedman crossed the line in ninth, Townsend was 38th, with Rose-Davies 10 seconds behind in 40th.
Click here for the full result of stage eight and the final standings in each of the individual classifications.