Eddie Dunbar and his team mates in the centre of the velodrome after the finish of a brilliant Liège-Bastogne-Liège for them.
He may not rank it as his best ever result, but Eddie Dunbar put in an excellent shift at the U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
He came in a much depleted peloton of 35 riders some 1:56 after his Axeon Hagens Berman team mate Logan Owen came across the finish line solo for the biggest win of his career to date.
And while the ambitious Dunbar will perhaps be disappointed not to finish a little higher up, the fact he had the legs on such a cold and wet day in what is a very difficult event suggests his development is continuing at a pace.
The strong international field took the riders 182km over testing Belgian roads used by the pros in the Ardennes Classics. It started in Bastogne and finished in Ans, with nine categorised climbs along the way, which was always going to suit Irish teenager Dunbar.
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Those ascents included, among others, the Côte de La Redoute, the Côte de la Roche aux Faucons and the Côte de Saint-Nicolas.
Eventual winner Owen, a 21-year-old in his second year with Axeon Hagens Berman, was clearly on a great day from the gun and was of 12 riders to break clear in the main escape of the day.
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It built a lead of over five minutes by the halfway point and while that came tumbling down to below two minutes at the business end of the day, Logan was untroubled.
When Pavel Sivakov (BMC Development Team) attacked on the Côte de Saint-Nicolas, the penultimate climb of the day; the young American was the only one of the original 12-man breakaway able to follow.
Over the top of the climb they had just 1:18 on the remains of the peloton and on the final climb – the Côte d'Ans about six kilometers from the – Owen jumped his fellow escapee and time trialled to victory.
His team mate Ruben Guerreiro of Portugal joined Owen on the podium in third place while another teammate, Krists Neilands of Latvia, finished ninth.
It was Axeon Hagens Berman's third victory in Europe in the past three weeks and its fourth of the season overall.
Dunbar would finish in 42nd place, in the reduced peloton some 1:56 down.
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