Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) may have come away empty handed from stage 2 at Critérium du Dauphiné but he at least had the satisfaction of knowing he stayed the pace on a day when the undulating riders in the final saw the other fast men in the bunch dropped before the finish.
It looked for a time like Bennett was in the perfect position to potentially win; sitting in the wheel of stage 1 winner and yellow jersey Christophe Laporte (Jumbo Visma). However, the Irishman said as he was waiting to make his move the Jumbo Visma riders ahead of him ran out of legs while Bennett was also distracted by Dylan Groenewegen, the Jayco AlUla rider he thought was bluffing in the final.
However, it soon became clear Groenewegen wasn't bluffing as his exploded exploded on one of the last kickers before the finish. And though Bennett held his place perfectly near the front, it was as much as a sprint for the general classification men as it was for the sprinters.
Advertisement
Ultimately, when the final kick for the line began, those GC men went forward and Bennett moved the other way; back through the front of the peloton to finish in 11th. The stage was won by Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) from Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Natnael Tesfatsion (Trek - Segafredo).
Laporte could not match the finishing burst that secured victory for him yesterday, but he still placed 4th today, which was enough to retain the yellow jersey.
Related News
For Bennett, 11th is nothing to write home about but having been distanced with over 30km remaining yesterday, he looked much stronger today, even if the sprint was gone from his legs due to the effort of the tough finale.
"I felt absolutely terrible at the beginning and then I made a slight adjustment to the saddle, which made a lot of difference to the muscles," Bennett said of today's 167.3km stage into La Chaise-Dieu.
"Then I started to come around near the end. I thought (Dylan) Groenewegen was bluffing to try and get me in front so I was just, like, staying behind him and then when I saw he wasn't gone to make the move I went up (to the front).
"(Jumbo) Visma ran out of steam and dropped the speed and that allowed (riders) to come from behind, so I didn't get the result I wanted."
The Irishman said at the finish that he hoped for a better result tomorrow, which looks like more of a straight up sprinters' stage at the end of 194.1km to Le Coteau.
