Mark Cavendish sprinted to a fine third place in the Heylen Vastgoed Heistse Pijl one-day race in Belgium at the weekend.

The Manx Missile claimed a place on the podium despite suffering a mechanical issue with his bike inside the final kilometre of the race from Vosselaar to Heist-op-den-Berg.

There was also joy for fellow Isle of Man professional Matty Bostock who continued his excellent run of form by crossing the line in 18th place.

The race was billed as a perfect opportunity for the sprinters to fight for victory, despite the presence of a 400m hill averaging 4.9 percent in gradient only 1km from the line.

A six-man group soon broke away from the main peloton and opened up a five-minute gap, but the race was controlled by the various sprinters’ teams, including Cav’s Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl.

The finale proved to be a tricky and somewhat chaotic affair though, as a series of crashes split the field and took many of the fast men out of contention before the flamme rouge (final kilometre).

Cavendish was among those hit by bad luck as his chain came off at the worst moment, a mechanical which ended up costing the Manxman several positions in the bunch.

But the Manx Missile still showed his class as the Giro d’Italia stage winner dug deep and sprinted to an impressive third place given the circumstances. The race was won by Lotto-Soudal’s Arnaud De Lie, while Giacomo Nizzolo was runner-up.

Speaking afterwards, Cav admitted he was hoping for better: ‘I’m a bit disappointed after the amazing work the guys did the whole day.

‘On the descent my chain came off and I tried to get it back on, but I lost a couple of positions there and knew it was going to be difficult.

‘Despite that, I tried and did my best in the sprint, but it’s just a shame given the form and positioning I had before that problem.’