Ben Hermans led a 1-2-4 finish by the BMC Racing Team on the final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire Sunday while teammate Samuel Sánchez was runner-up overall in the inaugural edition of the British race.

Hermans attacked the peloton with nine kilometers left, passed breakaway rider Lawson Craddock (Team Giant-Alpecin) with five kilometers to go, and had time to freewheel his BMC teammachine SLR01 across the line as he thrust both arms in the air. Teammate Greg Van Avermaet was runner-up nine seconds later, ahead of Julien Simon (Cofidis, Solutions Credits) and Sánchez.

Hermans, a solo winner at Brabantse Pijl last month, said he wasn't sure he had the form to go alone to the line again.

"Fortunately, today was a good day," Hermans said. "I had a hard moment on second-to-last KOM (king of the mountain) when it started to rain. But then I felt better and attacked. We wanted to make the race hard for the last couple of climbs and then some other teams would attack, or maybe I would attack. But I did not feel quite good enough to attack and still go with the good guys. So we stayed together. I think everyone was a little bit dead at that moment."

Lars Petter Nordhaug (Team Sky) won the overall title, 11 seconds ahead of Sánchez, who enjoyed his best result in a stage race since winning Vuelta al Pais Vasco in 2012. Hermans and Van Avermaet were sixth and seventh, respectively, in the final standings of the three-day race.

"Second in the GC (general classification) and Ben winning the stage is a fantastic result for us," Sánchez said. "The final 35 kilometers we had aggressive tactics. It was nice to do so well in this new race that had so many people out to watch."

BMC Racing Team Sport Director Jackson Stewart said Joey Rosskopf was one of the unsung heroes by helping chase down the day's two-man breakaway of Craddock and Nicolas Edet (Cofodis, Solutions Credits).

"Rosskopf did an amazing job to get the gap down to 30 seconds so Ben could go on the attack," Stewart said. "It was nice to get the stage win and keep our spot in the GC and move some other guys up the standings. It was a good team effort."

The BMC Racing Team's impressive performance in Yorkshire topped a day that included "most combative rider" honors for Stefan Küng at the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland. Küng soloed to win Friday's stage in rainy, cold conditions to earn one of eight victories by the BMC Racing Team on the season.