Albert Timmer once again proved today that when given the opportunity he can fight for the victory as he raced to fourth at the end of a day-long breakaway at the Primus Classic Impanis.

Albert Timmer got away in a strong early move of 10 riders that pulled clear and was never to be seen again, but a strong counter attack containing Daan Olivier and Ramon Sinkeldam nearly made it across, coming up just short at the finish.

The race got off to a fast start and it took over 20km for the day’s break to form but when it did it was a strong move containing many of the strongest teams in the race. Albert was present representing the team and taking the pressure off the chase behind.

The gap soon went out to five minutes and despite a hard pursuit behind, the gap didn’t drop below two minutes. With 30km to go eight riders formed a counter attack from the peloton, and Daan Olivier and Ramon Sinkeldam were present there.

The gap between the two groups quickly narrowed and with nine kilometres to go the difference was down to just 10 seconds. Despite closing fast, the gap never got much closer than this and on the run in to the finish the counter attack started to look at each other and not make the junction to the leaders.

Timmer, having tried to slow the group to help Sinkeldam and Olivier bridge to the front of the race, tried his luck in the final kilometre to surprise the escape. His gap was small and not enough to hold off Greg van Avermaet (BMC) who closed the gap and managed to hold on to take the win.

Sinkeldam took the sprint behind Albert Timmer’s group that had thinned to just five riders, placing him sixth on the day, 11-seconds behind van Avermaet. Daan Olivier came over the line in 15th rounding out a solid day for the team in Belgium.

“We were in a really strong position with Albert up front in a strong break and then Daan and Ramon getting in the chase behind. But unfortunately it never came back together. We knew Ramon was one of the fastest up there so Albert was trying to slow the front and Daan was pulling hard behind but it didn’t work out,” Coach Addy Engels said after the race.

“Albert tried to surprise the break at the end and he got a gap but van Avermaet was the strongest at the finish. It was a good race from the team though, good team spirit and they were doing the right things out on the road.”