Bennett was 5th in the Tour of Britain in today’s bunch gallop into Dumfries
Ireland’s Peter Hawkins (IG Sigma Sport) and Sam Bennett (An Post-Sean Kelly) have continued to make their mark at this year’s Tour of Britain, with Hawkins spending much of today as the virtual yellow jersey in a breakaway and Bennett taking 5th on the stage.
The brave bid for yellow by Hawkins fell agonisingly short of succeeding. He was absorbed back into the Team Sky-led peloton just 9km from the finish in Dumfries, having spent most of the rain sodden stage 3 out front in a group of five. He was rewarded with the prize for the most aggressive rider on the day.
The Belfast man’s breakaway group went clear well inside the first hour of racing and once they had established a gap they quickly got organised to the extent that 50kms into the 153km stage the gap to the peloton had moved past the four minute mark.
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The group consisted of: Hawkins (IG Sigma Sport), Bernard Sulzberger (Team Raleigh UK), Kristian House (Rapha Condor), Pete Williams (Node4-Giordana) and Wesley Kreder (Vacansoleil).
Hawkins was the best placed of the breakaway riders at the start of the stage – in 10th at 11 seconds – making him the virtual leader throughout today’s near 100 mile stage into Dumfries.
With the heavens open and temperatures very much on the autumnal side, the breakaway pressed on over the two 1st category and one 2nd category climbs of the day, with the latter crested at 63kms and with 90kms of racing remaining.
While the breakaway comfortably survived that tough stretch of climbing, their gap tumbled back down to a more modest 2:40 at the 80km point, just passed the halfway mark. When the breakaway passed through the finish line in Dumfries with one 30km circuit remaining that gap had fallen to 1:20 and they looked doomed.
Much of the riding at the front of the bunch was being done by Team Sky and by Unitedhealthcare, whose sprinter Boy Van Poppel had the yellow jersey.
With 8km of that 30km finishing circuit completed, the gap stood at just 40 seconds to the escape. But things were about to get interesting up front.
Hawkins and Kreder decided they were going to press on as their breakaway companions sat up and waited for the peloton.
Their gap hovered at around 30 seconds for a long time, but with both riders pulling hard up front they managed to take time out of the Sky-led peloton, with the gap back up to 45 seconds with 19km remaining.
The narrow tree-lined lanes combined with the rain to make for some very slippy conditions, and with the peloton negotiating the bends very cautiously it seemed not beyond the realms of possibility that the two leaders might hang on and Hawkins might take the yellow jersey.
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However, as the race moved into the business end of the day it was that train-like figure of Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins who hit the front of the peloton, absolutely determined to ensure a bunch sprint for his team’s fastman and world champion Mark Cavendish.
At the 13km to go point the gap was now just 20 seconds to Hawkins and Kreder.
Back in the peloton Sep Vanmarcke (Garmin-Sharp) attacked. He quickly got across to the two leaders and injected a massive amount of pace into their effort.
While the trio managed to pull away from the bunch again, sadly Hawkins slipped off the back with just 9km remaining, ending his hopes of a stage win or the yellow jersey.
That left Kreder hanging out of Vanmarcke out front, and while they battled on doggedly until 2.5km remaining they were eventually overhauled.
Sky put on a perfect lead out for Cavendish, who duly obliged with a comfortable stage win from Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEdge) in a reversal of yesterday’s 1-2.
With breakaway hero Hawkins out of contention in the closing kilometres, all eyes turned to the An Post-Sean Kelly team for an Irish result. And following on from his 9th place in the bunch sprint yesterday, Bennett was positioned much better today.
Going into the last bend he was 7th in the line. From there he more than held his own, taking an excellent 5th on the stage to add further to his purple patch of the past couple of months during which he has very much looked like the real deal on the Continent.
Having gained ground on everyone in the gallop – apart from Howard and Cavendish – it would appear that with a bit more of a lead out Bennett could bully his way onto the podium before this race is over next Sunday.
While Hawkins came close today, he at least has the consolation of having put in a huge ride and clocking up a string of points in the KOH and sprints calcinations, not to mention taking the day’s most aggressive rider award to add to his 5th place on stage 1.
We’ll have full results from today for you later.
Stage 3: Jedburgh-Dumfries – 152.6km
1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky Procycling 3:54:31
2 Leigh Howard (Aus) Orica - GreenEdge Cycling Team
3 Aidis Kruopis (Ltu) Orica - GreenEdge Cycling Team
4 Luke Rowe (GBr) Sky Procycling
5 Sam Bennett (Irl) An Post - Sean Kelly
6 Russell Downing (GBr) Endura Racing
7 Boy Van Poppel (Ned) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team
8 Jonathan McEvoy (GBr) Endura Racing
9 Barry Markus (Ned) Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
10 Yanto Barker (GBr) UK Youth Cycling
Leigh Howard takes over the yellow jersey from Van Boy Poppel.
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