Sam Bennett grimaces in pain; both legs and his shoulder cut as well as suffering his horrible hand injury (Photo: Sirotti)
Sam Bennett revealed he could see the bone in his finger such were the extent of his injuries from yesterday’s sprint finish crash on the opening stage of the Tour de France.
On today’s stage 2 – some 182km from Saint-Lô to Cherbourg-Octeville – Bennett struggled and was dropped a couple of times before making his way back to the peloton.
He was joined out the back by Michael Morkov, the Katusha rider who was first to fall yesterday and whom Bennett was just behind at the time.
The Irishman lost contact with the peloton for good today with Morkov with about 40km remaining.
And he would finish in 198th place – last man - with Morkov once place ahead, both of them 16:23 down on stage winner and new yellow jersey Peter Sagan (Tinkoff)
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The Irishman started the stage this morning hoping he could stay in the race and see how things progress of he could recover a little.
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Speaking to Irish journalist Shane Stokes on the start line this morning in Saint-Lô, Bennett said was very disappointed that his Tour had started with riders hitting the crowd control barriers and taking him down.
“It’s the second time this year that bad work with the barriers has put me down,” he told Stokes in an audio interview published on CyclingTips.com.au.
“Coming in at that speed; we shouldn’t have to worry about things like that…. It’s too dangerous but nothing is being done.”
He said the barriers encroached “real sharp” into the road and that those ahead of him clipped the barriers, leaving him with no time to react such was the speed they were travelling at up the finishing straight.
He said he immediately knew his hand was in a bad way.
“I could see the bone in my finger and I had to go under to get them stitched up.”
Bennett said while his general condition was better than this time last year, it was very difficult to move up during yesterday’s opening stage.
And he believed while he may have been in the top 10 in the day but for the crash, he did not feel he was in contention for the top 5.
You can read Bennett’s full audio interview with Shane Stokes – who is on the Tour with CyclingTips.com.au – by following this link.
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