Mark Cavendish sprinted to his fifth victory of the season at the Baloise Belgium Tour on Sunday.

The Manxman delivered a trademark finish at the end of the final stage of the 91st edition of the race.

After 178.8 kilometres of action from Turnhout to Beringen in the northeast of the country, Cav’s Deceuninck-Quick Step team-mates delivered him safely to the bunch sprint thanks largely to the efforts of Yves Lampaert, Davide Ballerini and lead out man Michael Mørkøv.

Cavendish typically timed his sprint to perfection, bursting to the line and edging past Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) and Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe) to claim his 151st career victory.

Afterwards, the Manxman said: ’Quite a hectic finale today, which was normal, as every team wanted to be there and fight for positioning and for the win, but I had a superb team around me, with the boys doing everything to keep me at the front.

’We knew what we had to do and we did it, and I couldn’t have asked for more. When you have these guys in front of you...what more could I say?

’It’s my first time in the Belgium Tour and to win here, against so many sprinters who will be at the Tour de France in two weeks, makes this victory even more beautiful.

’I’m incredibly happy!’

His team-mate Remco Evenepoel took the overall honours, while Cav finished seventh in the points classification.

Fellow Manxie Sam Brand also successfully completed the Belgian race. Riding for Novo Nordisk, the Peel ace finished 112th in the general classification, with his best result being 90th in the individual time trial.

The Isle of Man’s Matty Bostock enjoyed a good week in the saddle during the Tour of Slovenia, claiming a couple of excellent results along the way.

Bocky was ninth on the opening stage from Ptuj to Rogaška Slatina, before rounding off the five-day race with 20th place on the last stage from Ljubljana to Novo Mesto to finish 87th overall.