Sam Bennett hails historic week for team at Tour of Turkey

Sam Bennett added two more wins to his palmares in Turkey, held the race lead for four days and also won the points classification for the second year.

Sam Bennett has praised his Bora-hansgrohe team after it won three of the six stages at the Tour of Turkey and the overall title.

It was the team’s first outright win in
a WorldTour race since its inception as ProContinental outfit Team NetApp back
in 2010

Bennett himself played a big role in the
team’s success in Turkey; winning two stages and taking a 2nd and two 3rds.

He also wrapped up the points title, as
he had done last year when the race was held at the end of the season.

His team mate Felix Großschartner
stepped up and took the queen stage on Saturday in cold and snowy conditions.

The Austrian’s win saw the race leader’s jersey that Bennett had held since winning the opening stage pass over to Felix Großschartner.

Felix Großschartner on his way to stage victory and the leader's jersey on Saturday.

Bennett and Ewan; they claimed two stages each at Tour of Turkey 2019.

“We’ve won our first WorldTour stage race, and I’m really proud to be part of it,” said Bennett of what was an historic overall victory for his German WorldTour outfit.

“The whole team did an amazing job this
week. Of course, I’m delighted to have won the points jersey here in Istanbul.

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“It was a great week, now it is time to
head home to focus on the upcoming goals.”

Sam Bennett tried to win the final stage yesterday with the same late attack that saw him take victory.

Sam Bennett also came away from the race with the points classification.

However, while he got clear for a time
with just over 1km to go, Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) came through to win and
Bennett took 3rd.

His sports director André Schulze said
while the team would have liked to finish the race with another stage win, they
were delighted with the results they took.

“Of course we wanted to win today again
but I think a third place is really good too,” he said of Bennett’s finish in
Istanbul.

“However, we won the overall
classification, which is our first WorldTour stage race victory since we are a
WorldTour team.

“I’m really proud of the whole team, we
have achieved that together. Felix showed incredible shape and deserves that
overall win, same for Sam.

“He took two stage wins and several
podium spots and finished it off with the sprint jersey. All in all, it was a
fantastic week for us here in Turkey.”

Sam Bennett hails historic week for team at Tour of Turkey.