Sam Bennett has praised his Deceuninck-QuickStep team mates after his win on the opening stage of the Tour Down Under, saying the team had more confidence in him that he did himself.
"I did feel the pressure today so it's really nice
to get it early,” said Bennett of his win, adding he was very happy with how
the day had gone.
While some of his rivals got ahead of him on the run in to the finish of the stage into Tanunda, he said he fought back to retain his position.
“Everybody did a fantastic job today and the lead-out was
perfect. We took it up really early,” he said.
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“(My team mates) controlled the front, and they just did
the perfect job, so I can't thank them enough. I think the team had more
confidence in me than I did in myself.”
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Bennett added because the team had ridden so well all
day, it gave him great confidence for the challenges ahead late in the year.
While he felt he needed a bit more form, the team would
try to win again tomorrow ahead of the hillier stage 3 on Thursday.
"I wouldn't say it was easy to just slot in to the
sprint train, but there's a lot of experience in the team as well," he said of joining his new squad to effect
replace its sprinter of last year Elia Viviani.
"With Shane Archbold doing a monster effort near the
end, going for a super-long time, which made it perfect for Mørkøv to wind it up,” he said of today’s run in.
“He could
then be more explosive with his own effort. But it was a fantastic effort by
everybody on the team today."
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