Day three at the CRO Race saw the peloton head to and travel along the Adriatic coast, as they took on 157 kilometres from Sinj to Primošten with a punchy hill-top finish laying in wait for them. It was a steady start to the day and after a few attacks a seven rider group broke clear, with all Team DSM riders in the peloton – saving energy for what was to come.

As the kilometres ticked by the gap to the break dwindled and they were caught over the top of the penultimate ascent with ten kilometres to go. Some strong pre-final work by Nils Eekhoff, Enzo Leijnse and Marius Mayrhofer saw the rest of the team make it over the top of the ascent in the reduced peloton as the bunch charged down the other side towards the final climb.

After making a sharp turn, the team came forward as a unit with Henri Vandenabeele upping the pace at around two kilometres to go before he handed over to Max Poole who led the peloton onto the steep gravel slopes. With finishers Oscar Onley and Chris Hamilton positioned brilliantly, the pace stayed high as riders surged to the front. Onley held his place in the first three wheels at the head of the bunch, following others before putting the hurt on himself. Heading around the steep and banked penultimate corner, it was all-out to the line with Onley just being pipped to the win by Tour de France winner, Jonas Vingegaard.

Nonetheless, it was a very strong second place for the young Scotsman who moves up to third on GC and back into the lead of the KOM competition, while Hamilton himself dug deep to take 11th on the day and move up to tenth on GC – rounding out a strong day of racing from everyone on the team, with three more days of action to go.

“The plan for today was for me to have a go in the final and all the boys were fully committed to that,” explained Onley at the finish. “They did a perfect job positioning me into the key parts during the day. In the end I went slightly too early and just lost out on the win but I want to thank the whole team for the trust today and we’re ready to go again in the coming days.”

Team DSM coach Wilbert Broekhuizen added: “It was a really nice day for us. We had a good plan to bring Chris and Oscar into the final as fresh as possible, with Nils, Marius and Enzo protecting them all day. The other guys worked in a really good way together and we were with four guys going onto the climb with Henri, Max, Oscar and Chris. Henri and Max did a great job to keep the guys in position and towards the front. For Oscar to be battling for the win on a finish like this against the Tour de France winner is something very impressive, and he came really close to it too. We can be really happy with the performances of everyone today. We’re up to third on GC and back in the KOM jersey, so we have plenty to race for in the next stages.”