Shorts: Bennett in Andorra grupetto, our poll results on Froome punch

Sam Bennett uses the old trick of the stage profile wrapped around his stem so he knows how much pain is to come and how bad it's going to be; there are also some shots below of him climbing in the grupetto yesterday in Andorra.

Sam Bennett has had a testing time on this Tour but he's got through the first section of climbing in this race and now has a rest day, during which his recovery from his bunch finish stage 1 crash can edge forward a little further.

Yesterday, Bennett was exactly where he should have been; in the 60-rider grupetto of autobus of riders who stuck together with survival the order of the day.

They arrived at the finish line atop Andorra Arcalis almost 40 minutes down.

The danger for an injured rider like Bennett - especially if they are climbers on mountain stages - is that your injuries are so bad and physical condition so poor that you fall behind the grupetto and finish outside the time limit.

But Bennett made it yesterday and as the photos below shot on the final climb show, he once again had Shane Archbold with him, setting a pace for him and generally ensuring he was never on his own.

Archbold is definitely due an Irish passport after helping Bennett so well so far; the Kiwi even getting 10th place on a stage earlier in the race having been freed from lead-out duties for Bennett.

But hopefully next week we just might see the pair of them in the bunch sprints again, if Bennett's wounds allow.

Results of Froome smack poll

Chris Froome was fined for smacking this over excited fan run alongside him on the final climb on Saturday.

And while he initially stood by his actions and blamed the fan for putting him in danger, he quickly backed down with an apology (in Spanish) on Twitter.

The incident created a lot of debate on social media so we decided to do a Twitter poll; the results of which are now in. As you can say, most people overwhelmingly back him.