Tour of Britain in Yorkshire: Jumbo-Visma's Olav Kooij completes hat-trick of sprint victories as Tom Pidcock lurks menacingly

For all a healthy White Rose contingent could throw at the race as it made a sun-drenched return to East Yorkshire on Tuesday, Olav Kooij was the man who crossed the line first.

The 21-year-old Dutch sprinter, riding for the team that took Jonas Vingegaard to victory in the last two Tours de France, won a sprint stage for the third successive day - equalling a Tour of Britain win streak set by Edvald Boasson Hagen in 2009.

In temperatures more akin to July in Bordeaux than September in Beverley, Kooij had the legs over the final furlong to outpace his rivals to keep the leadership of the race within Jumbo-Visma’s grasp.

Home favourite Pidcock is trying to win the race overall and although a race topography that favours sprinters doesn’t suit him until the weekend, he still managed to come home sixth, the second Briton across the line behind third-placed Ethan Vernon, with another Dutchman, Danny van Poppel the closest to Kooij’s back wheel as they crossed the line on the Westwood.

Tanfield always finds something from deep within himself to animate a race through Yorkshire, and Tuesday’s 154km jaunt from Goole was no exception.

Ten minutes prior to the start, the 28-year-old from Great Ayton was at pains to tell The Yorkshire Post he ‘didn’t have the legs’ over the first two days of the race across the other side of the Pennines.

A return to the grippier roads and the warm embrace he is used to, and Tanfield found that extra gear.

Just kilometres after the roll out from a packed Market Square in Goole, Tanfield forced himself into the early four-man break, sustaining his position all the way through the Wolds and into Bridlington before they were eventually swallowed up by the peloton 35km from home. His prominence evoked fond memories of 2018 and his win in the Tour de Yorkshire, a solo break into Doncaster that suggested a bright future ahead.

“Hopefully I have the legs like I had that day to try something similar,” he said before launching his attack on Tuesday.

That win in Doncaster at the height of the Tour de Yorkshire’s pre-eminence remains the zenith of a career that has never fully taken off. Tanfield has bounced between World Tour and UCI Continental teams since, even admitting this season that with TDT-Unibet he has not reached top speed.

“I feel like I stepped forward a lot in the last half of the year, it’s just this week I’ve really suffered,” he said.

Given such modesty, it was pleasing to see such a friendly character prospering as the sun beat down on his home county.

Tanfield, who took 10 points in the green jersey points race, was in good company among Yorkshire riders. Pidcock of Leeds, winner of global races on every bicycle going, finished second into Helmsley on the Tour of Britain’s return to Yorkshire last year but may have to wait until the race’s final two days to launch his bid for overall victory.

“Unfortunately it’s like six sprint days so hopefully we’ll have a really big weekend with Tom up in the general classification,” said his team-mate, Doncaster’s Turner, one of three Yorkshiremen in the Ineos Grenadiers squad along with former British road race champion Connor Swift.

Wakefield’s Oliver Wood, recently crowned European scratch champion on the track, was back on road duty with the Great Britain Development Team.

“It was great to be back racing in Yorkshire, especially in the sunshine,” said Wood, who uses road racing to help improve his track capabilities.

“It was quite a hectic day out because there was a big risk of cross-winds coming off the coast when we hit Skipsea, so it was quite stressful. It’s usually about 12 degrees in the UK at this time of year so it made for a nice change, and it was also great to see so many White Rose flags.”

The loss to the calendar of the Tour de Yorkshire, a bi-product of the collapse of the Welcome to Yorkshire tourism agency and the pandemic, has at least opened the door for a rekindling of the relationship with Sweetspot, organisers of the Tour of Britain, this being the second successive year they have brought a stage to Yorkshire.

Bathed in September sunshine, the Broad Acres looked as more resplendent as ever. Cycling fans have grown accustomed to our punchy climbs and steep gradients, but this was a flatter stage, sweeping across the Boothferry Bridge, through Market Weighton and onto the coast before winding into Beverley.

Wednesday’s stage four is not far from these shores, starting in Sherwood Forest and heading to Newark via the Tom Simpson Memorial at Harworth.