Sam Bennett: "I can’t tell you how excited I am, I never thought I could win here" | Sticky Bottle

You know you've hit the big time when the Champs-Elysées is closed for you and you can watch a reply of your winning sprint on the final day of the Tour de France; Sam Bennett has just become an Irish sporting icon

Sam Bennett has enjoyed two trips to the Tour de France
final podium in Paris this evening; once for his stage win today and again to
be crowned points classification winner for 2020.

Speaking after the most incredible day of his career, and
one of the biggest days in the history of Irish cycling, Bennett was absolutely
brimming.

“Man, I can’t tell you how excited I am; the green jersey, Champs-Elysées world championships of sprinting… I never thought I’d ever be able to win this stage and to do it in green is so special.

*City of Lights: Sam Bennett on the Paris podium in green with Tadej Pogacar in yellow, and also winning the young rider classification and the climbers' classification*

“And to do it with my dream team, Deceuninck-QuickStep; the way the boys
road all day, they’re fantastic. The feeling is just so amazing, I can’t thank
everyone enough.

“All the suffering in the mountains is so worth it now, all the years trying to come up, trying to make it; I'll tell you, it took me so long to get here…

“I’m sorry if I’m coming across too arrogant or anything
but I’m just going to enjoy every moment of it.”

Bennett said of the sprint that when the final sprint was approaching he felt that he had perhaps used up a bit much of his resources earlier on the stage.

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He took intermediate sprint points to seal green even
before the finish and where he also faced the usual fight for position.

“Dries (Devenyns) came up and said ‘you want to go back
with Michael (Mørkøv), it’s a little bit easier in the bunch’. And I was a
little bit nervous because the last time I was on the Champs-Elysées somebody
came down in the back straight and broke their collarbone.

“So I was never about riding in the bunch, it was really fast. It doesn’t seem like it on TV but it’s fast downhill,” he explained, adding at one point he thought the race was going into the final lap but realised there were two to go meaning he had more recovery time.

*The Irish champion presented with his stage-win prize for his victory on stage 21*

He said his team mates then controlled the front of the
race on the last lap towards the finish, but when they were on the front coming
out of the tunnel Bennett felt they had perhaps committed themselves too early.

“And then Trek were trying to push up and we were holding
and holding (at the front of the bunch) and then into the last corner Mørkøv
started opening it up and we had each side (of the front of the bunch) covered
and I let Trek come up because I felt there was a bit of a headwind.

“So I let (Trek) go first and I waited. And then I opened
up and Stuyven came off the front for Pedersen and I had a bike length to run
at his wheel so I ran at that where (the road surface) was smooth. I thought
there was going to be somebody coming passed me but… I can’t believe I got it.”