Racing for the national development squad against world tour teams like Jumbo-Visma and Ineos Grenadiers, that is a tall order, but one Wood and Vernon are having a good go at.

For the second day running, the GB team helped Vernon to a podium finish on stage four into Newark, but it was a familiar face at the top as Jumbo-Visma’s 21-yea-old Dutch sensation Olav Kooij secured a record-extending fourth stage win in a row in what is a sprinter-heavy tour route this year.

For Vernon, a second successive third-place finish on a fourth stage that began in Sherwood Forest and passed the Tom Simpson Memorial in Harworth on its way through North Nottinghamshire, moved him up to second on the overall standings.

Olav Kooij of Team Jumbo Visma (Wearing the Leaders Jersey) Wins his fourth consecutive stage of the 2023 Tour of Britain at Stage 4 in Newark-on-Trent, ahead of Ethan Vernon, right. (Picture: Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com)

Wakefield’s Wood, pictured, a European champion on the track earlier this year, said: “We’re spending our pennies on helping Ethan Vernon win a stage because it’s pretty hard when you’re up against the likes of Wout van Aert etc.”

Kooij, who won the first three stages, all after similar sprint finishes, equalled Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen’s record set in 2009 after finishing ahead ofTeam DSM’s Casper van Uden and Vernon.

Stage four’s 166.6-kilometre course saw a two-man breakaway of Great Ayton’s Harry Tanfield, for the second day running and Belgium’s Abram Stockman swallowed up by the peloton with 27.5km remaining.

Kooij leads the general classification ahead of Wout van Aert and Ireland’s Sam Bennett(Bora-Hansgrohe).

Stage five, a 192.4km-course, starts and finishes in Felixstowe on Thursday.

Ethan Vernon pipped at the post again by Jumbo-Visma's Olav Kooij in Tour of Britain