Our star columnist this week, Sam Bennett was 3rd yesterday but saw a stage win and yellow jersey slip through his fingers.
By Sam Bennett
September 08, Stage 2 : Knowsley - Llandudno 200km
My former teammate at An Post Chain Reaction, Mark McNally, was pretty excited at the start of the stage this morning.
Having crested every climb at the head of the breakaway yesterday, ‘Macca’ donned the white king of the mountains jersey this morning and was on the attack almost straight away today in an effort to defend it.
While the breakaways were busy trying to open a decent gap this morning, I had two bike changes and a puncture in the first hour of racing.
My first bike change came after I hit something in the middle of the road quite early on.
I didn’t notice anything at first but soon realised the funny sensations creeping into my legs were because my saddle had dropped down substantially due to the impact.
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As we’re not allowed race radios in the Tour of Britain, I dropped back to my NetApp Endura team car behind the peloton, where the mechanic told me to wait until the breakaway got established and things eased up a little before changing bikes.
I hovered around the back of the peloton for a while but things didn’t seem to be easing up much so a few minutes later I dropped back again and stopped at the side of the road where the mechanic took my spare bike off the roof rack and I swapped bikes.
He told me it would take a few minutes to adjust the saddle on my new Fuji Transonic properly and to drop back later on and change back if things eased up.
Australian sprinter and lead-out man Renshaw takes the stage on the Welsh seasfront, Bennett on the right in third (Photo: Larry Hickmott – VeloUK.net)
We only got the new more aerodynamic Transonics before the Tour de France this year but the bike I’d been using earlier in the season was on the roof rack as my spare bike so there was no problem.
With the pace now eased off slightly at the front I made my way slowly up through the cars on my spare bike, taking my time going through a series of corners in a little village and using their brake lights as the signal to move up to the next one car.
On one of these bends however, my back wheel slid out and I looked down to see that I’d just punctured on my spare bike.
I didn’t even have time to put my hand in the air however before I heard the beeping of my team car’s horn as the guys drew alongside me to let me know my saddle height had been adjusted and my Transonic was ready.
Having almost made it back to the peloton, I was forced to stop again and change bikes for the second time, although there was still no real panic and I regained contact with the rest of the race within a few minutes.
Bennett was delighted to see former team mate Mark McNally (left) getting more climbers' primes in the breakaway yesterday; the friendships the riders make in teams last long after they've gone to other squads (Photo: Larry Hickmott – VeloUK.net)
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After the excitement of those few minutes, about 100km later I was starting to wish things would liven up a bit in the bunch.
Although I didn’t see one Irish flag along the route all day, I heard plenty of people calling my name.
At least I told myself they were calling my name and, having dismissed a fleeting acknowledgement that they might in fact be cheering for British rider Sam Harrison, got a bit of a morale boost every time I heard ‘Go on Sam’.
The peloton eventually kicked into life as we approached the second category Old Orme climb with about 6km to go.
With Macca having done enough to retain his mountains jersey for another day, the breakaways were hauled in halfway up and there were loads of attacks on the climb, with Omega Pharma Quickstep duo Michal Kwitkowski and Niki Tersptra very active near the top.
The stop-start nature of the climb made it very hard to stay near the front but once it thinned out into one long line going over the top, I was pretty well placed as a four man group containing my team leader Leo Konig was reeled in.
British time trial champion Alex Dowsett of Movistar went clear with former French champion Sylvain Chavanel on the descent and they were dangling a few metres ahead of us as my teammate Paul Voss led me under the kite in second place in the peloton.
‘Vossy’ was trying to close the gap to Dowsett and Chavanel when Bradley Wiggins of Sky suddenly came past us with about 500m to go and caught them.
Although I had jumped on Wiggo’s wheel as he went past, he eased up slightly on catching them and I followed suit, as I thought it was too far out to start my sprint into the slight headwind.
But the guys behind me carried their speed past and accelerated. Kwiatkowski let the wheel go in front of me as his teammate Mark Renshaw took the stage win ahead of Ben Swift, with me crossing the line for third.
Third is better than nothing but as a sprinter you always want to win and I’m never happy with anything else. I’m always pushing for more. But I suppose that’s not a bad thing.
Thanks to time bonuses earned today, I’m now six seconds behind race leader Renshaw in fourth pace overall but tomorrow’s mountain top finish on The Tumble means my job will probably be done at the bottom of the last climb and I will be saving my legs for another flat day.
What might have been; Renshaw looked good in yellow on the podium. It's a jersey Bennett would have been wearing today had be won the stage yesterday. But there will be more opportunities (Photo: Larry Hickmott – VeloUK.net)
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