Wout Poels finished well to clinch eighth place overall following the final stage at the Tour du Poitou-Charentes.

The Dutchman attacked repeatedly in the closing stages before eventually mixing it up with the fast men to finish 13th into Poitiers as the day finished in a bunch sprint.

That was enough to wrap up a top-10 finish, one minute and 18 seconds behind overall victor Tony Martin (Etixx - Quick-Step).

It was a good day all-round for the German's team as Matteo Trentin used his kick to take the stage victory. The race came back together after an attacking finale around the finishing circuit, with Frenchmen Bryan Coquard (Europcar) and Adrien Petit (Cofidis) rounding out the day's podium.

After driving home his advantage on Thursday's time trial, Martin's eventual winning margin was 37 seconds over Adriano Malori (Movistar), with Jonathan Castroviejo (also Movistar) one second further back.

The bulk of Team Sky's squad will continue on in France ahead of Sunday's GP Ouest-France. Elia Viviani moves into the eight-man squad in place of Danny Pate for the one-day WorldTour event in Plouay.

Back in action for the first time following the Tour de France, Poels told TeamSky.com he is happy with his form on a race he enjoyed.

"I'm happy with the result, especially when you look at the parcours which was not really my thing - certainly for the first three days," he confirmed. "It's always nice to do a short GC race. I like to do some of the smaller races and to race like in the past when you were a bit younger. There's lots of attacking and you can really race, so I enjoyed it a lot.

"The final stage was 197km today so quite long, and on the local lap we had three passes over a steep climb for a few hundred metres. I attacked the final two times over there but nobody really wanted to come with me and race. I tried but I couldn't make a difference to improve my position. In the end it was a sprint and I was still right at the front which was nice.

"Now we head to Plouay. We have a team with Ben (Swift) and Elia (Viviani) and Plouay is a nice race. I did it a few years ago but since then they have changed the parcours. I need to take a look at the new route but it's a good race and a WorldTour event. I feel good and I'm looking forward to it."