Tom Pidcock comes up half a wheel short in bid to win Tour of Britain stage in Yorkshire

But not his native Yorkshire. Despite his best efforts up Carlton Bank, through Helmsley and up the hill into Duncombe Park, Pidcock could not quite add a home victory to his impressive resume of race wins.

It was typical of the 23-year-old from Leeds that he would try to win a race for a supporting Yorkshire public, and the fact he didn’t, beaten at the line by half a wheel by Gonzalo Serrano of Movistar on stage four of the AJ Bell Tour of Britain will have wrankled as much as any defeat suffered by this insatiable winner.

"There was a little bit more of a spur from me today, even though it’s not that close to my house,” smiled Pidcock, just minutes after a 149.5km fourth stage from Redcar that was typical of the style of racing professional cyclists have become accustomed to in Yorkshire: grippy roads and punchy climbs.

Pidcock knows these road so well and as he showed on the mountain bike trails of Tokyo at last year’s Olympics, the world cyclo-cross course in Arkansas in January and on the famous Alpe d’Huez mountain on his Tour de France debut in July, the Yorkshireman can win on any terrain.

But it was the wind – or lack of – that undermined him yesterday.

Having launched his attack for the stage win and the race leader’s red jersey on the climb up Carlton Bank 27km from home, Pidcock looked primed to deliver for the home crowd. But he was in good company alongside Serrano of Movistar and Dylan Teuns of Israel Premier Tech, and it was Serrano who made the move 500 metres from the line as the race moved out of Helmsley and up into Duncombe Park.

"I thought it would be more of a headwind than it was,” lamented Pidcock.

"There’s not even much wind here, so I was waiting and it just didn’t happen.

"We try everything but sometimes maybe we try too hard. Everyone looks to us, so there’s not much we can do. We could have done some things differently today.

“We had to be prominent because it felt like everyone was against Ineos, which makes it fairly difficult for us."

There is a bigger picture, though, and in his well-earned position of Yorkshire and British cycling’s most exciting prospect, he knew what it was.

Namely, a premier cycling race returning to the county three years after the last Tour de Yorkshire and the UCI Road World Championships, and eight years since the Tour de France sparked the cycling boom in the Broad Acres.

"It was nice today, a load of proud Yorkshire folk with the flags flying, cheering me on,” said Pidcock.

"It’s special for me, it’s where I’m from. I saw a sign saying ‘Tom Pidcock Yorkshire’s finest’, so that’s nice to see.

"I’m proud to be from Yorkshire and these are the best crowds we’ve had all week, granted the last two days it was raining.”

Not that that would have put us Yorkshire folk off.

The route was lined across built-up areas from the start in Redcar, through Whitby, Robin Hood’s Bay and inland into the North Yorkshire Moors.

And Pidcock was not the only home rider to impress. Sam Watson, 20, from Leeds, was representing the Great Britain Cycling Team and led the chase to the leading four riders, closing the gap to 13 seconds as he crossed the line in sixth.

Currently riding for French team Groupama FDJ in the World Tour, he was supported in the Great Britain select team by Connor Swift, the former national road race champion fresh from a third Tour de France appearance earlier this summer.

"It was a tough stage,” said Swift, who himself has now dropped out of contention for the general classification ahead of the second half of the race that continues from West Bridgford to Mansfield tomorrow.

“The race was full gas from start to finish, combined with slow, grippy roads, up and down. There’ll be a lot of tired legs tonight.”

And also a lot of proud Yorkshire people after the county returned to the cycling spotlight, albeit only briefly.

“It was nice for the fans who have come out each year for the Tour de Yorkshire to see a big bike race come back here,” said Swift.

"It shows the appetite is still here.

"It was a typical Yorkshire challenge. Hopefully over the coming days I get a couple more chances to get in a breakaway.”

There was a sad footnote, neither of the Tanfield brothers had the pleasure of riding through their home village of Great Ayton.

Harry Tanfield was involved in a crash in the thunderstorms leading in to Sunderland 24 hours earlier and had to withdraw while his Ribble Weldtite team-mate and younger brother Charlie was dropped in the first half-hour of racing from Redcar.