Ireland’s Sam Bennett was 10th at the U23 World Championships in Valkenburg, Holland, today
Ireland’s Sam Bennett has finished 10th in the U23 World Road Race Championships in Holland after a race in which all four Irish riders put in a storming performance.
Bennett played a clever game, opting out of any showboating early in the race as he set about his plan of keeping as fresh as possible until the last lap when his finishing kick so very nearly brought him to a medal.
The Carrick-On-Suir man was placed sixth in the large select group coming into the finish at the end of 11 tough laps of a circuit that included the Cauberg climb just before the finish.
However, he came off second best in the barging for wheels in the closing 500 metres, successfully muscling a Kazak rider off a wheel he wanted but then being boxed in by an Austrian for a short but crucial stretch.
Advertisement
He was forced to freewheel a little and lost a vital couple of spots, being overtaken by three or four riders when he needed to be passing those ahead of him.
To his immense credit, he recovered his composure and was part of a line of riders just a bike length back from the first four who were so close to each other for the win.
While a top ten in the world is an immense result, Bennett definitely could have medalled today if he had come off the better in the physical battle for the line.
However, the day was not just about him.
Philip Lavery, Sean Downey and young Jack Wilson all put in great displays, with Lavery and Downey finishing in the first group with Bennett.
Related News
Downey handled himself very well, staying well positioned in the bunch during the 11 laps and holding firm on the final two loops when the pace really ramped up at the end of the 177km title race.
When the speed was at its most intense on the final passage of the Cauberg, Downey was one of a relatively small group to emerge at the head of affairs in the eyeballs out charge to the line, eventually finishing 26th.
Lavery also rode a very good race; looking after himself in the bunch like Downey and Bennett until the final two laps when he was clearly determined to have a go. On the penultimate lap he was in the top 10 of the bunch as a breakaway group of five riders dangled off the front.
Just after the race crossed the start-finish line to begin the final lap, Lavery attacked the peloton in pursuit of the breakaway on his own. While he managed to build a gap of around 10 to 15 seconds on the bunch and maintain that for a couple of kilometres, the Kazak team began driving hard in the peloton behind, sweeping up Lavery and then the breakaway.
Their efforts were repaid when their rider Alexey Lutsenko took the group sprint for the win to claim the world title. Lavery ended the day in 32nd place.
Jack Wilson, in his first year as an U23 rider, rode a fantastic race. He held his place very well in the peloton until the second last time up the Cauberg when he was distanced. However, he got back on and began the last ascent of the climb with the leaders, a fantastic result for the 18-year-old.
U23 World Championships: 177.1km
1 Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan) 4:20:15
2 Bryan Coquard (France)
3 Tom Van Asbroeck (Belgium)
4 Hugo Houle (Canada)
5 Luka Pibernik (Slovenia)
6 Jhoan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Colombia)
7 Hernando Bohorquez Sanchez (Colombia)
8 Kenneth Van Bilsen (Belgium)
9 Wouter Wippert (Netherlands)
10 Sam Bennett (Ireland)
11 Patrick Konrad (Austria)
12 Jan Polanc (Slovenia)
13 Soufiane Haddi (Morocco)
14 Moreno Hofland (Netherlands)
15 Haavard Blikra (Norway)
16 Sergei Pomoshnikov (Russian Federation)
17 Silvan Dillier (Switzerland)
18 Lawrence Kalil Warbasse (United States of America)
19 Jay McCarthy (Australia)
20 Michael Valgren Andersen (Denmark)
21 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Norway)
22 Sebastian Lander (Denmark)
23 Janis Dakteris (Latvia)
24 Tobias Ludvigsson (Sweden)
25 Michel Koch (Germany)
26 Sean Patrick Downey (Ireland)
27 Arman Kamyshev (Kazakhstan)
28 Ilia Koshevoy (Belarus)
29 Nikias Arndt (Germany)
30 Juan Ernesto Chamorro (Colombia)
31 Kristian Haugaard Jensen (Denmark)
32 Philip Lavery (Ireland)
33 Karel Hnik (Czech Republic)
34 Kirill Yatsevich (Russian Federation)
35 Natnael Brhane Teweldemedhin (Eritrea)
36 Rick Zabel (Germany)
37 Joshua Atkins (New Zealand)
38 Gijs Van Hoecke (Belgium)
39 Fabio Felline (Italy)
40 James Oram (New Zealand)
41 Vegard Breen (Norway)
42 Pit Schlechter (Luxembourg)
43 Nathan Davis Brown (United States of America)
44 Tim Mikelj (Slovenia)
45 Jan Hirt (Czech Republic)
46 Alex Kirsch (Luxembourg)
47 Carlos Verona Quintanilla (Spain)
48 Pawel Poljanski (Poland)
49 Gavin Mannion (United States of America)
50 Joshua Edmondson (Great Britain)
51 Jasper Stuyven (Belgium)
52 Warren Barguil (France)
53 Georg Preidler (Austria) 0:00:09
54 Tom Skujins (Latvia) 0:00:15
55 Tom Thill (Luxembourg) 0:00:25
56 Oleksandr Prevar (Ukraine)
57 Eiichi Hirai (Japan)
58 Sergei Chernetski (Russian Federation)
59 Andrei Holubeu (Belarus)
60 Reda Aadel (Morocco)
61 Piotr Gawronski (Poland)
62 Magnus Cort Nielsen (Denmark)
63 Marcel Aregger (Switzerland)
64 Daniil Fominykh (Kazakhstan)
65 Lukasz Wisniowski (Poland)
66 Josef Cerny (Czech Republic)
67 Louis Meintjes (South Africa)
68 Andris Smirnovs (Latvia)
69 King Lok Cheung (Hong Kong, China)
70 Gennady Tatarinov (Russian Federation)
71 Sebastian Anaya (Venezuela)
72 Sebastian Henao Gomez (Colombia)
73 Pawel Bernas (Poland)
74 Davide Villella (Italy)
75 Daan Olivier (Netherlands)
76 Nikola Kozomara (Serbia) 0:00:31
77 Antoine Duchesne (Canada)
78 Anasse Ait El Abdia (Morocco)
79 Adam Phelan (Australia)
80 Lukas Postlberger (Austria)
81 Anton Vorobyev (Russian Federation)
82 Maxime Daniel (France)
83 Vladislav Gorbunov (Kazakhstan)
84 Emanuel Buchmann (Germany)
85 Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands)
86 Jan Sokol (Austria)
87 Tsgabu Gebremaryam Grmay (Ethiopia)
88 Jakub Filip (Czech Republic)
89 Eduardo Sepulveda (Argentina)
90 Danny Van Poppel (Netherlands)
91 Joseph Lloyd Dombrowski (United States of America)
92 Nikita Umerbekov (Kazakhstan)
93 Damien Howson (Australia)
94 Klemen Stimulak (Slovenia)
95 Mark Dzamastagic (Slovenia)
96 Enrico Barbin (Italy)
97 Scott Thwaites (Great Britain)
98 Jasha Sütterlin (Germany) 0:01:14
99 Anatoliy Sosnitskiy (Ukraine) 0:01:35
100 Théo Vimpere (France) 0:01:43
101 Angelo Tulik (France)
102 Bob Jungels (Luxembourg) 0:02:24
103 Andrea Fedi (Italy) 0:02:48
104 Francesco Manuel Bongiorno (Italy)
105 Thomas Scully (New Zealand) 0:03:18
106 Mattia Cattaneo (Italy)
107 Jhonatha Salinas (Venezuela)
108 Simon Yates (Great Britain) 0:03:34
109 Salaheddine Mraouni (Morocco) 0:04:08
110 Asbjørn Kragh Andersen (Denmark) 0:06:29
111 Maxat Ayazbayev (Kazakhstan) 0:07:16
112 Kim Magnusson (Sweden)
113 Ali Riza Tanriverdi (Turkey) 0:09:38
114 Dieter Bouvry (Belgium) 0:10:09
115 Nikita Zharoven (Belarus) 0:10:18
116 August Jensen (Norway) 0:13:00
DNF Jack Wilson (Ireland)
Topics
