Geraint Thomas produced a stellar display at E3 Harelbeke to round off a day to remember for Team Sky.

Buoyed by Ben Swift and Richie Porte’s successes earlier in the day, Thomas attacked from the peloton on the Oude Kwaremont and then dropped Zdenek Stybar and Peter Sagan in the final four kilometres before solo-ing to his third win of the season.

The Welshman rode an imperious race, repaying the hard work his team-mates put in to avoid a number of early crashes which decimated the field.

Indeed, only 30-or-so riders remained when he let rip 38km from home, and even then only Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Stybar (Etixx – Quick-Step) could go with him and he pressed over the remained cobbled climbs.

Thomas did the lion’s share of the work in the closing stages to fend off a disjointed chase group, and then left his accomplices in the dust as he swept into Harelbeke, crossing the line with a 25-second winning margin.

Immediately after the stage he said: “I can’t quite believe it. That last attack took me back to my track days and I imagined I was trying to hold Ed Clancy’s wheel in the team pursuit. I felt pretty good during the second half of the race and committed at the end.

“It was hard out there. The three of us worked well together and I wasn’t sure if they were bluffing a bit near the end – panting and pulling faces – but fortunately they weren’t, and it was great for me.

“This six-week period we’re in from Paris-Nice to Paris-Roubaix is my big focus of the season. The way Paris-Nice finished was disappointing, but I felt good again at Milan-San Remo, and to get the win now is really special.”

The cobbled classics are renowned as some of the most dangerous races in the sport, and so it proved with Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) just one of several big-names to withdraw after a sizeable pile-up on the Haaghoek pave.

At that point Thomas was positioned safely towards the front with Team Sky driving a hard pace to gradually reel back the day’s first breakaway.  

No sooner had that occurred than Thomas made the first of his race-winning moves, and once the selection had been made he battled on with Stybar and Sagan in his wheel before he leaving them too for the first classics win of a prodigious career. 

Back at the team bus, Sports Director Servais Knaven hailed Geraint’s efforts and believes it stands the team in very good stead heading into the next races.

He said: “It was a typical Flemish race, and really exciting. G made it to the front on the Oude Kwaremont and really put the hammer down. Only Sagan and Stybar could follow, and then G made all the right moves in the final. It was brilliant.

“He was relieved to win after being in a similar position last year, and it’s a huge morale boost heading into the Tour of Flanders next week. E3 is an historic race in its own right, all the big names are here, and if you can win here, you can any classic.

“On these roads he’s one of the best, and he’ll be in the team again for Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday. We’ll go full gas again there because there’s a week in between that race and Flanders. The weather is not forecast to be good, but we’ll see what we can do with Elia Viviani. He’ll be our protected rider in that race and then we’ll be riding again for G in Flanders.”