In his first event back from a knee injury, Haig and Dylan Van Baarle had a sterling battle in the final 16km of the 113km hilly stage.

The duo broke away from the lead group of 13 riders on the penultimate climb of the day.

They stayed clear, with Van Baarle edging out Haig in the sprint to the line.

Haig, who rides for Mitchelton-Scott, finished the event in 27th place overall - a pleasing performance with the Tour de France only a few weeks away.

"The plan wasn't necessarily for me to go in the breakaway but to get one of us guys in the breakaway if it was a decent size,'' Haig told www.greenedgecycling.com

"It just happened to be quite hard at the beginning and I was in a good position, I saw the move going away and I jumped into it.

"The original goal was for me to try and stay there and try and help (Adam) Yates move up the general classification but once I heard that he had pulled out, then I changed my focus to seeing if I could win the stage.

"I thought I should be there or there abouts, looking at the other guys in the break, but I knew there would be a few that would be quite hard to get rid of in the end. Van Baarle was super strong and unfortunately I couldn't get rid of him.

"It is great to finish off the week with a good result, especially after the injury I have had since Paris-Nice, this gives me confidence going forward and towards the next goals."

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