Sam Bennett has said he was “delighted” to take the yellow jersey at Paris-Nice after Sean Kelly last led the race way back in 1988 when he took the final victory of his seven-in-a-row GC wins.
Stephen Roche also won the race once overall and the Dubliner was the last Irish rider to hold the race lead; claiming it for two stages in 1990 before losing it to Miguel Indurain.
“I feel good now. I like to ride in France for sure. I suppose it’s where all the big races are. I’m delighted to be in yellow after Sean winning it so many times,” Bennett said in reference to fellow Carrick-on-Suir man Kelly.
“I’m not going to win the overall but to lead the GC for a day or two is pretty special. It would be nice to do it again tomorrow. I will try.”
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Bennett (30) took an incredible win on the opening stage
today; sprinting on the hoods to the slightly uphill finish line with speed and
great strength to see off Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) and Mads Pedersen
(Trek-Segafredo) into Saint-Cyr-L’École.
And with tomorrow’s stage 2 perhaps even better suited to
the sprinters, once the crosswinds don’t split the race, Bennett said he would
love to win again on stage 2, which would see him carry yellow into Tuesday’s
TT.
For now though, he said he was very grateful to the work of his Deceuninck-QuickStep team and thrilled to take the victory and the race lead. It was his third win of the year after taking two stages at UAE Tour last month.
Related News
Check out what @Sammmy_Be had to say after scoring his tenth victory for Deceuninck - Quick-Step and donning the prestigious yellow jersey on the first day of #ParisNice. pic.twitter.com/O3y1EeP5Hc
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) March 7, 2021
“The guys did a fantastic job again today. I was a little blocked in the last 15km and the nature of the sprint here made it a little chaotic,” Bennett said.
“The narrowing in the last 500 metres made it even more
tricky. But the guys delivered me on the wheel. Michael (Mørkøv) was always
calm and he always seems to get me there the whole time.
“The team were amazing. I was a bit worried coming
here and I spent the whole day until the last ten or 15 kilometres wondering
whether the legs would be there in the sprint.
“In the last two kilometres I could not get to the front
and then eventually we got there. I was put in Pedersen’s wheel and I waited to
try to go and I was kind of blocked again at the 500 metres.
“It was nerve-racking. Then we cut the gap and I followed Ackermann when he tried to go and I gave it my all.”
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