Sam Bennett cut a frustrated but philosophical figure at the end of the opening stage of the Tour de France in Nice today when he finished 4th in the bunch sprint.
While the Irishman was highly fancied to win, and take
the first yellow jersey of the race, he had to be content with a placing just
off the podium.
After almost 100 miles in the saddle on wet, undulating
and very slippy roads Norwegian road man Alexander Kristoff took the bunch
sprint and yellow.
It was a day of drama with a huge number of riders
hitting the deck, including Bennett and his team mate Julian Alaphilippe as
well as Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ).
At one point Bennett’s sprint rival Caleb Ewan (Lotto
Soudal) was over six minutes down but got back on.
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That was possible after riders like Luke Rowe (Ineos
Grenadiers) and Tony Martin (Jumbo Visma) called for the pace to be dropped on
the front to make a number of descents safer for everyone.
Another of the sprinters Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT Pro Cycling), who recently won the European Championships and the Italian nationals in sprints, was also way down at one point but got back on.
Bennett was a little disappointed to try so hard on the
last climb of the day to stay in the front group, only for the pace to be
dropped and so many riders get back on. He rued not taking it easier on the
climb to have stronger legs in the sprint.
However, while frustrated he said slowing the pace in the
peloton was the right thing to do for rider safety. And he was very hopeful for
the remainder of the Tour, with Monday’s stage likely the next one for the
sprinters.
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“It was a dangerous day with the roads being so slippy.
But I just tried to do my best, tried to stay safe,” the Irishman riding for
Deceuninck-QuickStep said of today’s opening stage that started and finished in
Nice.
“I made a wrong decision in the final when Mørkøv went I
saw (Jasper) Stuyven and I thought ‘OK, I’ll let him in and hopefully he’ll go
early’. But he waited too long for me to get a run at Michael (Mørkøv) and I
should have real fought for my team mate’s wheel and gone from there.
“But I dropped the speed too much and had to try to
accelerate it again and it was just too late. It’s a pity because I had good
legs but I’m confident other opportunities will come next week.”
The stage turned into a nightmare, with wet conditions
and roads that saw rider after rider crash; Bennett crashing on the first
approach to Nice and later also getting a puncture.
However, the Carrick-on Suir man was making no excuses,
saying his own difficulties didn’t throw him off track today during the stage.
“To be honest I saw OK,” he said after being asked how
the conditions and mishaps had impacted him.
“There was a crash and (I had) just a broken wheel. Then
I got a puncture on the climb. And, actually, I felt pretty good on the climb.
The only problem is, we went easy then to neutralise the descent and then more
competitors came back.
“So I fought really hard to stay in the front and then they could just roll back. I could have taken it so much more easy and then sprinted with fresher legs in the final.
"But I suppose it was the right decision to keep everything safe. But, when you put that effort in you want the race to continue.”
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