Just 24 hours after being dropped by the peloton on stage 2 of Tour de Wallonie, Sam Bennett won stage 3 of the Belgian race in great style.
He survived the final climb today, as
the peloton was shredded and most of the sprinters were dropped, just over 10km
from the finish.
And when a four-man group that had escaped on that climb was brought back with only 500 metres to go to the line today, Deceuninck-QuickStep’s Florian Sénéchal gave Bennett the perfect lead out.
Such was the power of that lead out that Sénéchal and Bennett pulled clear of the bunch a little – along with Arnaud Demare (Groupama FDJ) and John Degenkolb (Lotto-Soudal) – and when Bennett kicked for the line it was instantly all over as a contest.
Advertisement
“After yesterday I needed that. The
springs came out yesterday and I just had nothing. Today was a big difference,”
Bennett joked of his poorer performance on stage 2.
Related News
“We just said we’d ride aggressive, and
I’d just float around, because I knew my form must be there some place but I
didn’t know if it’d come back today,” he explained of today’s stage 3.
“So I just rode my own race until the
last climb, and the boys did a great job in the finale today. With the
positioning and the lead-out, the whole team rode a fantastic race and I’m
really proud to finish off the job today.
“I worked really hard the last month and
yesterday didn’t reflect that, so I was a bit disappointed. I didn’t expect a
big turnaround today, but I just rode and kept fighting over that climb.
“The final was harder than yesterday,
but I made it and had strong legs in the sprint. I’m happy with this win, one
that I really needed with ten days to go until the Tour de France.”
He
added with his team mates Fabio Jakobsen and Remco Evenepoel having been wiped
out by crashes, he hoped his win today marked a change in the team’s fortunes.
“This one is for those guys. Hopefully they have a good recovery and will join the Wolfpack, where they are missed, as soon as possible,” he said.
Topics
