Five-time Grand Tour stage winner last year, Nacer Bounhanni can only stare down as Sam Bennett beats him to another win in Germany.
Having taken the opening stage and the first yellow jersey of the Bayern Rundfahrt pro stage race in Germany on Wednesday before he lost the lead yesterday, Sam Bennett has stormed in for another victory today.
The Bora Argon 18 man was quickest to the line into Ebern after 205.9km, nudging Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) and Ramunas Navardauskas (Cannondale-Garmin) into 2nd and 3rd placings.
When Bennett won the opener, Bouhanni, who took five Grand Tour stage wins from sprints last year, was 2nd with home favourite John Degenkolb in 3rd.
The German Giant Alpecin man took stage 2 yesterday in the bunch sprint from Bounhanni, with Bennett 4th and just out of the time bonuses.
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It meant Bennett slipped to 4th overall, some four seconds back.
And while Degenkolb contested the intermediate sprints wearing yellow today, he could only manage 7th on the stage and so found himself out of the more generous time bonuses up for grabs on the finish line.
It now means Bennett is back in yellow; leading by two seconds from Bouhanni, with Degenkolb in third a further one second back.
The riders face a 26.1km individual time trial tomorrow before Sunday’s closing 198km road stage, which Bennett won last year.
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The Irish man has already said it will be hard for him to win the race outright because of the time trial.
Stage 3: Selb – Ebern (205.9km)
1 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Argon 18 4:59:33
2 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
3 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team
4 Enrique Sanz (Spa) Movistar Team
5 Jonas Van Genechten (Bel) IAM Cycling)
6 Marco Marcato (Ita) Wanty - Groupe Gobert
7 John Degenkolb (Ger) Team Giant-Alpecin
8 Christophe Laporte (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:00:02
9 Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) MTN - Qhubeka
10 Fabian Wegmann (Ger) Cult Energy Pro Cycling
General Classification
1 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Argon 18 14:54:58
2 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:00:02
3 John Degenkolb (Ger) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:00:03
4 Jonas Koch (Ger) Rad-Net Rose Team 0:00:14
5 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Team Katusha 0:00:15
6 Enrique Sanz (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:16
7 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team
8 Jack Bauer (NZl) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:00:18
9 Marco Minnaard (Ned) Wanty - Groupe Gobert
10 Jasha Sütterlin (Ger) Movistar Team 0:00:19
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