Bora-hansgrohe has said it was working for Sam Bennett on the opening stage of Critérium du Dauphiné until Deceuninck-QuickStep messed it up for them.
The opening stage yesterday took the
riders 142km from Aurillac to Jussac, with a cat 1 at the start and repeated
climbs thereafter.
Bennett, as expected, climbed much better than the other sprinters in the field.
And on a day when it was always going to be touch a go for him to make it in the lead group, the plan remained on track for a long time.
However, when the racing hit the last
climb and the early breakaway was still up the road Deceuninck-QuickStep took
it up on the front.
Bora-hansgrohe had ridden very strongly to keep the breakaway under control.
However, when the Belgian squad ripped it up going up the final climb, Bennett was one of the many casualties.
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The last of the escapees weren’t caught
until they were within touching distance of the line. That paved the way to a
sprint from a much reduced peloton won by Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data).
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Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck-QuickStep)
was 2nd with Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) in 3rd place.
Sam Bennett finished 126th in a group 10:46
down. Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) finished safely in the group sprinting for
victory, in 48th place.
In the absence of Bennett, his team mate Gregor Mühlberger was 5th and he said afterwards Deceuninck-QuickStep had effectively blown the team’s plan out of the water.
“I think, we showed a strong performance
today. We worked for Sam, to bring him into a good position for the final
climb,” he said of Bennett.
“When Deceuninck-QuickStep took over
control, the race went on fire. I launched an attack but unfortunately it
didn’t work out.
“However, I tried and finished in fifth
position, Emu crossed the line at the same time, so we have a good position for
the GC.”
Bora-hansgrohe sports director said he was struck by how strongly the breakaway had ridden.
“We controlled the race to bring Sam
into the bottom of the last tough climb in a good position in case he was able
to make it over the top for the sprint, but the pace was too high,” he said.
“After that, Gregor tried and launched an attack, as the breakaway was caught Gregor gave his all and took a strong fifth place. Overall I think we can be satisfied with today’s opening stage.”
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