Sam Bennett has taken his first win the Irish champion's jersey; claiming the opening stage of the Binck-Bank Tour in Belgium.
The Carrick-on-Suir man put in a fantastic kick to claim both the stage victory and the race lead.
The167.2km opening stage from Beveren to Hulst was run off in sodden conditions; the rain pelting the riders for most of the day.
Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) survived in the finale on his way, staying behind Jumbo-Visma even though they were a long way off the front with just 300 metres to go.
At the opportune moment Bennett then came from around the men in yellow and demolished the sprint, making it look very easy in the end.
While an early breakaway survived to contest the three time bonus sprints in the golden kilometre inside the last 10km, the last of them was caught afterwards.
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That paved the way for a bunch sprint in the rain into Hulst; won by Sam Bennett who also takes the race leader's jersey.
On the finish line today Bennett beat Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) into 2nd place Tour de France stage winner Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma) in 3rd.
The early breakaway featured Lukasz Wisniowski (CCC
Team), Lars Bak (Dimension Data), Baptiste Planckaert (Wallonie-Bruxelles) and
Aaron Verwilst (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise).
They gain several minutes though their recapture always
looked inevitable. However, they survived to contest the three intermediate sprints
in the golden kilometre.
And that means Wiśniowski is now 2nd overall just two
seconds behind Sam Bennett with Bak 3rd at three seconds.
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