Sam Bennett may be still searching for his first stage
win on the Tour de France, and his team may have lost the race lead today, but
the Irishman is in the green jersey.
He said his team might now focus on keeping it, adding he
intended to fight for it all the way to Paris in 2½ weeks.
“I was focused today on taking the green jersey and
having it and following in the footsteps of Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche feels
amazing,” he said.
“I am delighted and proud with it and want to enjoy this
moment and continue fighting for green.”
It is the first time an Irish cyclist has held any jersey
at the Tour de France since Sean Kelly was awarded the final green jersey in
Paris way back in 1989.
Advertisement
Since then three Roches have ridden the Tour – Stephen,
Laurence and Nicolas - as well as Kelly, Martin Earley, Dan Martin and Mark
Scanlon while Paul Kimmage ended his career on the 1989 edition. And since that
race no Irishman has worn any jersey on the race, until now.
The moment wasn’t lost on Sam Bennett (29) who confirmed he felt proud to wear it given its place in Irish cycling history.
“I never had such mixed emotions; I got the green, but I
didn’t get my stage win. But I have to be happy to wear this; just enjoying the
moment,” he said.
Today’s stage 5 – some 183km from Gap to Privas - was won
in a reduced bunch sprint by Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) from Cees Bol (Team
Sunweb). Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was 3rd followed by Peter Sagan
(Bora-hansgrohe).
Yesterday Bennett mopped up enough points to draw level
with Sagan in the points classification thanks to his effort at the intermediate
sprint. But it was Sagan with the better general classification position and so
he got to wear the jersey today.
In the final sprint to the finish line today Bennett took
up a position behind Sagan and it appeared he may have been too focused on him
and the green jersey fight; something the Irishman confirmed.
Related News
While Bennett beat Sagan in the sprint, the gallop for victory between Van Aert and Bol occurred a bike length ahead of them and Bennett said he became distracted by his bid for the green jersey.
“It was really hard in the last 2-3k to go. I actually
thought I’d blow up and wouldn’t make it to the sprint it was so hard. I kinda recovered then on a little descent
before the run-in,” he said of a very testing final phase to an otherwise
uneventful day when no breakaway formed.
“And then, I think, I almost just forgot to go for the
win I got so focused on Peter… my focus swapped, I don’t know… I just lost
track a bit but I have the green and I have to enjoy that.”
Asked if his team might now aimed to keep the jersey, especially having lost yellow today when Julian Alaphilippe incurred a 20-second time penalty for a late feed, Bennett said that may become a team goal.
He added the incident that cost his team the race lead
had no sinister motive but was simply a mistake they were now paying for.
“It’s not that the team is trying to get away with
anything, it’s not that we’re trying to cheat or anything.
“It’s just a mistake and unfortunately we’re paying the
price for it and I could see there’s a lot of disappointment there (for Alaphilippe).”
Tomorrow’s stage 6 is one for the climbers; 191km from Le Teil to Mont Aigoual, with most of the last 35km uphill and a
summit finish.
However, there is an intermediate sprint 125.5km
into the stage where Bennett will look to score points, with Sagan likely to
try and make the breakaway to take the points.
Bennett currently has 123 points to Sagan’s 114 followed
by stage 1 winner Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) on 93 and stage 3 winner Caleb Ewan (Lotto
Soudal) on 75.
Topics
