Team Giant-Shimano had hoped to see their climbers Thomas Damuseau and Daan Olivier go on the attack in today's RideLondon Classic but punctures took them both out of contention. Instead, the highlight was the performance of stagiaire Steven Lammertink who joined the early break.

Steven Lammertink made a strong start to his time as a stagiaire with Team Giant-Shimano today by getting in the day’s breakaway and winning the sprints classification. The podium visit for Lammertink was a silver lining to a day where the team suffered misfortune with punctures as the wrong moments in the race which effectively put an end to both Thomas Damuseau’s and Daan Olivier’s chances of a result on the day.

The team went into the one-day race in the capital city with the goal of going on the offensive and getting a rider into the breakaway. After an active start, the team achieved this first goal when Lammertink broke clear in a group of six riders, eventually spending a large portion of the stage in front.

Lammertink made the most of his time out front to take the intermediate sprint points and in doing so wrapped up that competition. Once the race came back together it did not take long before it had split again as a powerful small group pulled clear. Punctures for Olivier and Damuseau on the wet roads amongst the hills meant that they missed out on the first peloton as the race continued to split.

After the stage, Team coach Marc Reef said: “The guys did a good job in the beginning to make sure that we were represented in the break. In the end we achieved this with Steven which was great for him and also winning the sprints competition is good for his confidence.

“We had some bad luck with flat tyres at bad moments but that is racing and it was tough out there today with the bad weather conditions and tough road conditions. A visit to the podium and showing in the break though means that we still had a good day.”