Despite a merely acceptable build-up towards the Ronde van Vlaanderen because of the illness forcing him out of the Milano-Sanremo, Dwars door Vlaanderen and E3 Harelbeke, Taylor Phinney emerged as the strongest man in the 11-rider breakaway not only avoiding the carnage but setting up his BMC team captain perfectly for the finale in the crash-marred spectacle.

Phinney’s disposition ahead of the Flemish monument was under the question following his prolonged rest period forced by the disease, but the 23-year old American managed to join the day’s early breakaway and played an important role in deploying BMC tactics during his debut in the brutal cobbled affair.

Agreeing to play the team game with Greg Van Avermaet appointed a sole captain of the American squad for the Flemish classics, young time trialist proved to be a serious contender for this kind of races in the future, looking strong on the cobbled hellingen and being the last breakaway’s rider to be caught by a significantly shattered peloton.

"I was feeling really good," Phinney said at the finish. "I knew that I was one of the strongest from the breakaway and I just wanted to try and last as long as I could and try to be helpful in the later part of the race when it really started to kick off."

"He’s a good Classics rider, but he’s a good everything rider," said BMC’s sporting manager Allan Peiper.

"We’ve got confidence in him. He was seventh in Milan-San Remo (in 2013), so he can do the distance. It’s just getting the pieces in place at the right time. He’s still only young, 24. It takes a while to learn the races, learn how they go and learn how to get ready for them. It was only mentioned in the newspaper that all the favourites were all ready right at the right time and that takes experience."

But Phinney’s participation in the breakaway was more than just testing his potential as a future classics specialist, since it enabled the American squad to deploy their pre-race tactics to a full extent and save an energy before the final attack of Van Avermaet with 37 kilometers to go has been launched.

"We needed guys to go out there first," explained Peiper. "It’s like a big roll on effect. You’ve got Phinney out there with 11 guys, you’re protected, you get another guy out there in the counter attack, you’re protected. What goes around comes around, and the next guy is protected and in the end it is set up for Greg, which was perfect."

The 23-year old American confirmed that it took a long time and a huge struggle before the 11-man breakaway eventually went clear, but it was worth such effort since in let the young BMC rider to enjoy his Ronde van Vlaanderen debut away from the savage carnage unfolding behind their back.

"We pushed pretty hard to establish it, we had some strong dudes in there with Daryl Impey and (Aliaksandr) Kuchynski and Stig Broeckx," Phinney said at the finish. "It is always kind of a relief to get into a big breakaway in a Monument because you don’t have to deal with the stress all day. It kind of sets the team up well because they know that they always have me up there if they want to try and bridge across. It’s just good for morale."

Despite emerging as the last breakaway’s rider to be reeled in by the peloton, Phinney was never considered a candidate to take the spoils in yesterday’s event. However, the Hell of the North is the next event on the agenda for the young time trialist and considering both his promising showing in the Flemish monument and the Paris-Roubaix route – presumably much more to his liking, just another strong performance from the BMC rider should be expected.