Harry Tanfield sprinted to brilliant third place as Chris Latham won the East Cleveland Klondike Grand Prix.
The BIKE Channel Canyon rider, racing on home roads, was denied a memorable victory by the Team Wiggins man as Enrique Sanz, of Team Raleigh, took second spot.
However, Tanfield’s podium – alongside the sixth-place finish of Sam Lowe – marked a superb start to the Spring Cup for Tim Elverson’s new UCI Continental outfit.
Chris Opie had been on the wheel of his team-mates heading into the finale but a crash with 1km to go saw him lose touch and finish 11th.
It was enough to ensure BIKE Channel Canyon finished the day – and started the Spring Cup – as the leading team.
After a crash saw the race neutralised in the opening kilometres, Team Wiggins’ Sam Harrison launched the first move.
Brother NRG Driverplan rider Charlie Tanfield, brother of Harry, and Dan Fleeman, of Metaltek Kuota, soon bridged across and the trio built up a one-minute advantage.
Shortly after the first lap of the main loop was completed, Madison Genesis rider Matt Holmes made the junction with the gap holding around 45 seconds.
Max Stedman then went on the attack in a bid to join the leading quartet, quickly opening up a 45-second gap as the front of the race eased 90 seconds clear of the peloton.
Charlie Tanfield then hit out from the break, only to be reeled in, as the main group slipped to a deficit of almost six minutes by the end of the second lap.
As the peloton stepped up the chase, led by ONE Pro Cycling and JLT Condor, Stedman was swept up to leave the original quartet on their own out in front.
With less than 50km remaining, the advantage had been cut to little more than two-and-a-half minutes.
Holmes then took his chance to attack the breakaway, quickly dropping his three rivals and forging clear in pursuit of a maiden national series win.
The Madison man held a lead of close to a minute when the remnants of the break were caught by the marauding pack.
His charge was finally snuffed out with around 13km to go, prompting four riders to counter-attack, including Dexter Gardias.
The likes of ONE Pro’s Hayden McCormick, Alistair Slater, from JLT Condor, Liam Holohan (Metaltek Kuota) and Madison’s Taylor Gunman were all active in the finale before the group came back together for a sprint finish.
Charlie Tanfield was later presented with the KOM award, while the top under-23 was Metaltek Kuota rider Zach May.