“I was coming with speed but Lampre put me in the barriers deliberately. I wasn't happy"

Sam Bennett (number 182 on the left) is nudged into the barriers by Lampre's Sacha Modolo in the final 100m of today's second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico.

By Gerard Cromwell

On just the second day of his first WorldTour race, Sam Bennett once again showed he is capable of mixing it with the top sprinters in the world when he finished fourth on stage two of Tirreno-Adriatico today.

Bennett’s NetApp Endura squad did well to get their young Irishman to the front in a hectic finale, with the ever-reliable Zak Dempster depositing Bennett onto French sprinter Arnaud Demare’s (Fdj.fr) wheel with about 900 metres to go.

As the sprint opened up, Bennett was forced to stick an elbow into Belgian Jurgen Roelandts to stay upright as Andre Greipel’s Lotto Belisol lead-out man leaned on the Carrick-On-Suir native with around 500m to go.

A shift in direction a couple of hundred metres later saw him sandwiched between two riders and forced to freewheel again.

“The team did a perfect job again today,” said Bennett afterwards.

“They got me into a good position but I was holding a little bit back for the last 100 metres.”

But just as Bennett dived up the inside and appeared to be finally making progress in the final 100 metres, he was leaned on again, this time by Lampre sprinter Sacha Modolo and had to stop pedalling to avoid hitting the barriers.

“I was coming with speed, but a Lampre guy didn’t hold his line and put me in the barriers. I was bouncing along on them and he held me there. I’m disappointed because I lost all my speed and it cost me a podium place.”

"That’s sprinting I suppose, but it was intentional and I wasn’t happy with him afterwards.”

Despite all of this, Bennett managed to notch up his first ever WorldTour points, finishing behind stage winner Matteo Pelucchi of IAM Cycling, Demare and Greipel.

"In the final part of the race, we were focusing on Sam,” said NetApp Endura manager Enrico Poitschke afterwards.

“Zak was able to bring him into a very good starting position. Unfortunately, just before the finish line, Sam was forced into the barrier again by a rider, which caused him to slow down, and then he had to start back up again.

"Claiming fourth place in spite of that is a great achievement. On the other hand, he could've come out with an even better finish."