Tour of Denmark stage five: Give › Vejle, 126.5km.
The result represents his best-ever finish in a stage race, finishing four seconds behind stage and race winner Christophe Laporte (Jumbo Visma), who began the stage on level time with the Grenadier.
Sheffield finished an impressive week as the best young rider, having earlier won his first professional time trial on stage two.
There was a strong team performance on the final stage with Sheffield’s teammates working to maintain a tough pace and deter any attacks.
With Egan Bernal, Ben Swift and Michal Kwiatkowski contributing early on as they chased the break, Geraint Thomas then sacrificed his own hopes of a podium by working in the final 40 kilometres on the front.
After catching the early breakaway, Thomas maintained the pace on the finish circuit, finally handing over to Omar Fraille and Jhonatan Narvaez, who sprinted to fourth, to assist Sheffield in the final, where he was pipped in a sprint to the line by Laporte