BELGIAN Ben Hermans won the third and final stage of the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire as Team Sky's Lars Petter Nordhaug hung on to secure overall victory in Leeds on Sunday.

BMC Racing's Hermans attacked with 10 kilometres remaining of the rolling 167km course from Wakefield to Leeds, soon sweeping by the fading solo effort of American Lawson Craddock (Giant-Alpecin) and quickly building a 20-second lead on the way into the finish in Roundhay Park.

That was enough to secure the stage win by a final margin of nine seconds as the peloton behind squabbled over the general classification places, with Nordhaug able to stay with the secondary group and maintain his lead.

In the final standings, the Norwegian won by 11 seconds from BMC's Samuel Sanchez and Thomas Voeckler of Europcar.

Team Sky's Irish rider Philip Deignan finished fifth overall, 24 seconds back on his team-mate.

Once again, the Yorkshire public turned out in huge numbers despite a poor forecast and the occasional shower along the way, with the route lined almost from start to finish and only a narrow path clearing for the riders on the biggest climb of the day to the Cow and Calf above Ilkley.

Sir Bradley Wiggins, enjoying something of a lap of honour as he winds down his road racing career, started the day more than 15 minutes down in the general classification and was again well off the back as the leaders crossed the line.