TWELVE year-old Finlay Tarling, from Ffosyffin and riding for West Wales Cycle Racing Team, took on and beat the cream of the Dutch cycling scene at the prestigious Hammer Series event in Sittard.

Held at the Tom Dumoulin Bike Park the event is one of the biggest Dutch one-day events of the year and sees riders from all over Holland and Belgium competing on a tough course, before a prestigious professional race in the afternoon.

Finlay’s race, Category Six, saw him take on a full field of 80 riders, all aged 12 or 13, over a 30km course that took in multiple climbs up a steep cobbled section in the middle of the circuit.

Having placed third last year, he was determined to use some of his good form to take top step this year.

With a strong wind pummelling the course it was always going to be a hard race, and Fin realised early on that a lot of riders were struggling as the twisting course exposed riders to the wind a number of times.

Taking to the front at the end of the first lap he rode really hard into the cobbled section and kept the power on up the climb and into the wind on the back straight.

This hard effort split the bunch and reduced the leaders down to a group of six. Another attack a few laps later then saw a Belgian rider dropped making it just five riders in the lead.

These five contained the current Dutch National Champion and the current leader of the Limburg Youth series, so it would be a challenge to take the win.

Into the last lap, Fin realised that, with a tailwind, the race would likely be won by the competitor first into the corner at the start of the finishing straight.

With this in mind he launched his sprint first, took the corner at top speed and managed to take the sprint win in a lunge at the finish, just pipping the Dutch National Champion.

It was a fantastic result ahead of some quality riders, on a tough day. Getting to share the experience with Team Ineos Welsh rider Owain Doull afterwards was the icing on the cake.