Sam Bennett came close to winning a couple of stages in last year's Rás, but yesterday into Listowel he sealed the deal after a great team performance (Photo: Adrian O'Connor / www.blackumbrellaphotography.com )
By Gerard Cromwell
In Listowel
Sam Bennett benefited from an armchair ride to the line from his An Post Chainreaction teammates to stomp to a second career Rás stage win in Listowel yesterday.
Having put Sean Downey up the road in a three-man move for most of the day, the postmen had little to do until the escapees were reeled in with 15km remaining.
With a sprint finish on the cards, stage two winner Shane Archbold reversed roles with Bennett to lead out the Carrick-On-Suir native at the end of 140km from Nenagh.
“Sam came up to me at 10km to go and said he was feeling good, just like I came up to him yesterday, so it was only fair we lead him out,” said the Kiwi afterwards.
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“I’m the perfect man for a lead-out like that with my track background. It’s pretty much made for me. I was expecting me to lead out Sam alone but there were four of us so it made my job really easy.”
“Ronan McLaughlin was in front of me and Nicholas (Vereeken) was sitting behind me and for Sam to get a stage win in Ireland makes the team very happy and two in a row is even better.”
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Yesterday’s victory was the first for Bennett since galloping home at the GP Stad Geel in Belgium in 2011 and he was visibly relieved to have broken his duck in Listowel.
“I’m so happy,” said Bennett.
“I could see that I had maybe a bike length coming up to the line so I was able to celebrate. It’s been a long time since I was able to celebrate because I was never sure. We came here for stage wins and we’ve got two now.”
“Coming in the road I asked Shane ‘can I sprint today?’ He said ‘yeah, no problem’. And the whole team hit the front with a kilometre to go. Ronan went first, took us out of the peloton and hit the front coming towards that sharp corner with 500m to go. Shane hit (the corner) first, got the inside line and kicked out of it with 500m to go. And then Nicholas ramped it up and kept it going to 200m. I just kicked and that was it, I got the stage win.”
With overnight leader Peter Hawkins crashing out mid-stage, and eight riders on equal time at the end of yesterday’s stage, the yellow jersey of leader of the An Post Rás was decided on today’s stage placings.
Following Shane Archbold’s role as lead out man for stage winner Bennett, he drifted down the bunch in the final metres, allowing third on the stage Marcin Balablocki (UK Youth) to take over as race leader.
“Anything can happen tomorrow because it’s a very hard stage with lots of climbs but I’m looking forward to it,” said the Polish race leader afterwards.
“I’m lighter than I was last year so I’m climbing better. But still, there are a lot of guys much lighter than I am. There’s a long way to go and tomorrow everyone will be marking me but still, I’m very strong and I’m going very well, and I’m not afraid of anyone.”
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