Manx cyclist Nathan Draper recorded an excellent second place finish in the Memorial Philippe Van Coningsloo men’s elite road race held in Belgium on Sunday.

The field of 160 starters included some top Europeans as well as some well-known British riders such as Jacob Scott, Chris Latham, Charlie and Harry Tanfield and Tom Pidcock. Despite having rode a 200-kilometre race the previous day, Team Wiggins rider Draper was determined to get into any moves that went.

While some early attacks came to nothing, a move started by him on a short climb with around 80km to go slowly developed into an 11-man break which, through working well together, gapped the peloton to two minutes with 70km to go.

By around 10km to go the gap was down to less than a minute and some weakness in the break saw a number of the 11 missing their turns at the front.

Nathan and his Wiggins team-mate Jacques Sauvagnargues were determined not to let this opportunity slip and worked really hard to keep their escape alive.

The hard work paid off but, having given everything in the last 5km to hold the peloton at around 50 seconds, Nathan just didn’t quite have the legs to beat fast-finishing Swedish rider Gustav Hoog who narrowly took the win in a sprint over a long, straight drag race to the finish.

Nathan, whilst disappointed not to have won, was delighted to be back on the mix at such a prestigious UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) 1.2 class race.

The previous day, Nathan finished 64th in the Market Heistse Pijl race.