Sam Bennett has said while he was disappointed not to honour the yellow jersey in Germany with a better time trial ride, he has other fish to fry.
By Brian Canty
Sam Bennett is targeting his third stage win in five days today as the 2.HC-ranked Bayern Rundfahrt race in Germany comes to a conclusion.
The Bora-Argon 18 man wore the yellow jersey on yesterday’s penultimate stage but lost it – as he was always going to – so he could be fully fresh for the final day today.
Yesterday’s outing was a 26.1-kilometre time-trial won by recently crowned hour record holder Alex Dowsett (Movistar) in a time of 31:33.
The Briton takes over the race lead with Tago Machado (Team Katusha) in second at two seconds and Bennett's teammate Jan Barta in third a further 16 seconds back.
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Bennett rolled over the line over three minutes down in 79th and he dropped to 54th overall.
He said he was disappointed not to be able to honour the leader’s jersey but is extra motivated to make it a hat-trick of stage wins today.
“It was nice to wear the yellow jersey but I knew I was never going to be able to do it justice because obviously I wasn’t going to go so well with the final stage in mind,” he told stickybottle last night.
Bennett gets his TT underway yesterday. He looks in mint condition; the definition in his legs and arms pointing to the rider he is becoming having been exposed to harder racing as team leader.
“Maybe I could have done a mediocre ride but I think it’s more important to go for the last stage.
“It was really nice to be in the yellow doing the TT, though.”
Bennett’s two stage wins were markedly different from one another; the opening day he was forced to start his sprint early while on Friday he only saw the front for a few seconds as he came off the wheel of runner-up Nacer Bouhanni (Cofids, Credit Solutions)
“They both have their merits,” when asked which was more satisfying win.
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“The first one because of how far out I went but yesterday because the team did an absolutely incredible lead-out.
“They timed it good and I did a really good sprint, so they both have their merits.
Bennett simply hasn't looked back since he won this stage in the Tour of Britain two years ago; moving up to ProContinental with NetApp-Endura for the following season when he took four wins. He has already taken three victories this season and will ride the Tour de France in July.
“The uphill finishes are killing me though,” he added in reference to Friday’s win.
“I don’t have as much power as the other guys but I have speed.
“At the moment the form is really good and the guys are looking after me well and I’m coming to the line fresher. That’s very encouraging.
“Actually, I really did think I left it too late on Friday; with 50 metres to go I thought ‘no way’ but at 20 metres to go I thought ‘oh yeah, I might get it’…”
Despite two stage wins and two days in yellow, Bennett said the team are still hungry for more.
“There’s big motivation to finish with three stage wins but you never know.
“Obviously other teams are motivated too. Giant (Alpecin) and Cofidis; both want a win and they’ll be motivated but we really want it too.”
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