Marcel Kittel was marginally too quick for Mark Cavendish at the end of Scheldeprijs today. The Etixx-QuickStep man benefited from a strong leadout from his team to notch his fourth win in five years in the race.
By Brian Canty
Sam Bennett has finished 12th in the 1.HC-ranked Belgian semi-classic Scheldeprijs this afternoon, Wednesday.
The Bora-Argon 18 man was one of three Irish riders in the race, with debutant Ryan Mullen (Cannondale) and Matt Brammeier (Dimension Data) getting in some good miles in advance of Paris Roubaix on Sunday.
Bennett's German-registered team didn’t put any men in the early break.
Instead, they opted to protect Bennett as much as possible and they made no secret of their intentions all day as they tweeted the hashtags ‘GoSamGo’ and ‘AllForSam’ throughout the race.
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Bennett’s team rode well to get him into position near the front but from the 3km to go marker to the final kilometre they got caught out on the wrong side of the bunch, losing places and each other.
And while Kiwi lead-out man Shane Archbald battled to rescue the situation and tried to deliver Bennett to where he needed to be for the all important last kilometre, the Irishman got into position too far back and ran out of time.
“After we lost position Shane tried to move us back up,” said Bennett.
“He dropped me on Kristoff’s wheel, but it was too late, there was not chance to take on the sprint with the guys on the front,” he added, with Kristoff finding himself also out of the running and finishing 15th.
Sam Bennett was well protected by his team today, but it just wasn't to be (Photo: Sirotti)
The field was one of the best assembled in recent times, with Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) taking the win from Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) in a photo finish.
Between them they have now won seven of the last 10 editions of the race.
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World champion and recently-crowned Tour of Flanders winner Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) was also in action today, though he pulled the plug with 20 kilometres to go after towing the peloton along for a time.
Clearly, his focus was on Sunday’s ‘Hell of the North’ and today was more a training ride for him.
Tinkoff and Etixx-QuickStep set the pace around the 100-kilometre mark in an effort to bring the five-man move under control.
And when they were within two minutes, Lotto-Soudal and Katusha took up the pace-setting as the wind wreaked havoc with the field.
The break of five was caught with 50 kilometres to go and that provoked a fresh wave of counters, with two men escaping for a spell.
After this it was the turn of Dimension-Data to do their share and Ireland’s Matt Brammeier did some superb riding at the front for Cavendish, patrolling the two-man break that never had more than 30 seconds.
All the while, Bennett sat in the wheels and saved his energy as much as possible. The race ended with three laps of a 16.8km circuit in Schoten, with the Irishman's team's effort just losing shape at the last.
Etixx-QuickStep did a marvellous job for Kittel, with two men giving him an armchair ride to the final 150 metres.
Cavendish was locked on his wheel when the German launched himself but didn’t have the power to come around for the win.
Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) was a bike length back in third.
Ryan Mullen put in a strong ride to finish 25 seconds back in 59th and that will do his confidence the power of good ahead of Paris Roubaix on Sunday.
#Scheldeprijs video pic.twitter.com/5qxU2ZUuHr #mariovanderende
— liveciclismo (@liveciclismo) April 6, 2016
Scheldeprijs (1.HC), 207k
1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Etixx - Quick-Step
2 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Dimension Data
3 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal
4 Edward Theuns (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
5 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
6 Danny Van Poppel (Ned) Team Sky
7 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Team Giant-Alpecin
8 Wouter Wippert (Ned) Cannondale Pro Cycling
9 Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
10 Daniel Mclay (GBr) Fortuneo - Vital Concept
12 Sam Bennett (IRL) Bora-Argon @s/t
59 Ryan Mullen (IRL) Dimension Data @25secs
112 Matt Brammeier (IRL) Dimension Data @3'05"
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