Sam Bennett suffered two blow-outs in his season opener, the second with 500 metres to go. However, he still managed a top 10 which bodes well.
By Brian Canty
Sam Bennett was left ruing two rear-wheel blowouts in the final 10 kilometres of his season opener; the UCI 1.1-ranked Trofeo Santanyi-Ses Salines-Campos race in Mallorca yesterday.
The Bora–Argon 18 man was the team’s protected rider but a puncture at 10km to go and another at 500 metres cost him a higher placing than his eventual 10th.
Still, the Irishman was reasonably happy with his, and his team’s, efforts.
“I was going okay today,” he told stickybottle.
“The first puncture was grand. It was good in a way because we weren’t fighting for position and we could get back up through the cars okay.
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"But the second one; I was in a bad position coming out of the last corner and the tyre blew out again.
“Coming into that last corner I was on (Nacer) Bouhanni’s (Cofidis) wheel, but I lost two places to him.
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Bennett, extreme left of front row, said he was very happy with how the team worked yesterday, when he was the protected rider.
“It was a messy final and it got split up, we had a plan but we couldn’t do it because it was too hectic. We did what we could.
“I could match him (Bouhanni) but I couldn’t accelerate on the flat tyre. But it was the final so I just kept going in the saddle.
“I think if I held his wheel coming out of the corner a top five was possible,” he continued.
“I had the legs to go from 300 metres so if it didn’t blow out I don’t know, maybe I’d have been two or three places higher up.
"But it’s hard to tell, you can’t really tell. I had great support from all the team and we were all together in the final so that augers well.
“I had really good power today, it was just one of those things. The last corner was really sketchy, but there’s plenty of time.”
Bennett’s next assignment is Sunday’s similarly ranked Trofeo Playa De Palma.
It and the race yesterday are part of the Mallorca Challenge series of one-day races, which continues today though Bennett will not race today.
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