Not so long ago in Sam Bennett's career a stage win at Tour de la Provence would have been celebrated, but perhaps only in the context of bigger races, and bigger wins, to come in the months ahead.
Yesterday, however, Bennett was taking his team's first win of the season and his best quality victory since the Vuelta in 2022. He was best in a sprint from a reduced bunch and what made this win so significant is that it might relaunch his career.
Many were quick to write off the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider when the same sort of success he experienced in the three years to 2021 wasn't repeated after he came back from a double knee injury later that year.
But he has now shown he can beat some of the best in the bunch - Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) both behind him yesterday.
Advertisement
It's a win that might prove the starting point of a revival for the Irish rider, who told stickybottle late last year he felt good and his winter training had gone well.
Related News
After his victory yesterday, on a stage with 2,600m of climbing, he said he had to fight to get back to the bunch after the first ascent. But his condition was clearly good enough to allow for a recovery for the finishing sprint from the 40-rider bunch.
"We wanted to come here and try and get our first win of the season," he said after his win into Saint-Victoret after a tough 169km of racing in windy conditions.
"We knew it was going to be quite a hard beginning of the race, but we managed to get over the first climb with enough riders to bring me back into the first group.
"The guys did a fantastic job, but it was terribly difficult, but we managed to pull it off. It was quite windy but it actually helped me because a lot of the times it was a headwind over the climb.
"So it allowed me to get over in a better group. It was quite good, and I quite liked the wind.
"The team were fantastic, and I want to thank them for the amazing support. They didn't give up hope on me after Bessegès and we came here and I'm glad to repay them with a victory."
