Tour de Yorkshire: Lars Petter Nordhaug seals title as Ben Hermans wins stage three

Lars Petter Nordhaug became the first winner of the Tour de Yorkshire

Team Sky’s Lars Petter Nordhaug sealed overall victory of the Tour de Yorkshire as BMC Racing’s Ben Hermans escaped to a solo victory on stage three in Leeds on Sunday.

Hermans attacked out the main bunch, which had been severely thinned down by the day’s endless barrage of climbs, with 11km remaining and hung on to win by nine seconds from runner-up Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing) and third-placed Julien Simon (Cofidis).

Nordhaug crossed the line in sixth place to seal an 11-second overall triumph over Samuel Sanchez (BMC Racing) in second and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) in third.

Ben Hermans launched his winning attack with 11km remaining (Picture: SWpix.com)

Sir Bradley Wiggins (WIGGINS) appeared determined to enjoy the day, at one point joking with the TV motorbike that it was "bloody hard", before finishing 5min 38sec down on Hermans in 42nd place.

The final stage was another overwhelming success for the race thanks to the thousands of fans who lined the roadsides all along the 167km route despite rain falling later in the day.

The stage contained six categorised climbs plus countless other short and sharp uncategorised ascents, and after the riders had tackled Black Hill, which arrived 16km from home and carried a maximum ramp of 19 per cent in gradient, fewer than 20 riders were left in contention.

Nordhaug, in the blue jersey, makes his way through the crowds on the Cow and Calf climb

After attacking on a flat section, Hermans quickly caught and passed the last rider from the day's original breakaway, Lawson Craddock (Giant-Alpecin), and with no chase effort behind, he was able to power on to his second win of the season.

The main group sat around 10 seconds behind but with Nordhaug being safely marshalled by two team-mates, his closest rivals in the general classification were unable to mount any sort of challenge to his race lead and Norwegian was able to celebrate as he crossed the line.

Stage three result

1 Ben Hermans (Bel) BMC Racing, 4:27:22

2 Greg van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing, +9secs

3 Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis, same time

4 Samuel Sanchez (Esp) BMC Racing, st

5 Huub Duyn (Ned) Roompot Oranje Peloton, st

6 Lars Petter Nordhaug (Nor) Team Sky, st

7 Alex Kirsch (Lux) Cult Energy Pro Cycling, st

8 Thomas Sprengers (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise, st

9 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, st

10 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Europcar, st

Final general classification

1 Lars Petter Nordhaug (Nor) Team Sky, 12:47:56

2 Samuel Sanchez (Esp) BMC Racing, +11secs

3 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Europcar, same time

4 Stephane Rossetto (Fra) Cofidis, +13

5 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky, +24

6 Ben Hermans (Bel) BMC Racing, +1:05

7 Greg van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing, +1:15

8 Huub Duyn (Ned) Roompot Oranje Peloton, +1:27

9 Richard Handley (GB) JLT Condor, st

10 Steve Cummings (GB) MTN-Qhubeka, +1:30