Mitchelton-Scott's Damien Howson took both the final stage and the overall win at the Czech Tour in Sternberkorn, Czech Republic, on Sunday, as the Australian WorldTour team completed a successful four days in the Czech Republic.

The team entered the race as the defending champions, having won this race last season with Darryl Impey, and pushed Luke Durbridge into the leader's jersey first in the team time trial stage on Thursday, and the following day Jordi Meeus ( SEG Racing Academy) took the stage win.

Meeus won stage 3 the next day as well, with sprinter Kayden Groves leading the race from Mitchelton teammate Durbridge.

"It was a hard day," said Meeus. 'The guys have done a huge amount of work over the last few days and we needed to keep ourselves in the lead at all times. So I think we did well on that front and stayed calm. [Jack] Bauer and Michael [Hepburn] helped me in the second half of the stage. As long as they could get me to the final climb, they did more than enough."

Howson and Uno-X's Marcus Hoelgaard broke away from the lead pack on the final circuit in Sternberg, with Australian Hoelgaard dominating the Norwegians for the win.

"I had to make sure I didn't let anyone beat me on the final lap climb. When the Uno X riders ran a super hard tempo, it was just the two of us left."

Dave McPartland, Mitchelton Scott's sport director, said, "Heppy [Hepburn] and Bauer protected Damo on the circuit and nullified any attacks. The only thing Damo had to cover was the climb on the last lap.

"This was our goal at the beginning of the week, we had two high goals, GC and the stage, and we achieved both," said Damo. We struggled a little bit more than last year, but we got two wins and the overall."