Sam Bennett may not have featured in the final sprint of Paris-Nice stage 2 yesterday but his presence in the front group suggests he is coming around, with his team now expressing confidence he is improving.
Bennett and his Bora-hansgrohe team mate, and Irish champion, Ryan Mullen found themselves off the back of the front group at a number of junctures during yesterday's stage; some 159.2km from Auffargis and Orléans.
However, as the crosswinds blew and split the race to pieces, the Bennett-Mullen group - which also contained their team's GC leader Aleksandr Vlasov - managed to catch the leading group, which was being led for long periods by the Jumbo Visma team of race leader Christophe Laporte.
In the finale Bennett did not contest the final sprint, with Fabio Jakobsen (QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl) taking a brilliant sprint victory from the group, his sixth win of the season. Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) was 2nd and his team mate, and yellow jersey, Laporte was 3rd.
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Bennett is still trying to build his condition after an injury-hit season last year when he was forced onto the sidelines in May due to a problem with his knee. He did not compete for any wins for the remainder of the campaign and only raced a handful of times towards the end of 2021.
Having re-signed with Bora-hansgrohe for this year, the team's directeur on Paris-Nice, Torsten Schmidt, said it was clear the Irishman was getting better, as evidenced by his presence in the front group yesterday.
"With Sam we’re happy how he’s improving at the moment. He’s still missing a couple percent but we’re confident," he said, adding the team also had a GC card to play.
"Long sections of crosswind made the race really hard and split the field into small groups. Aleksandr Vlasov put in a strong race, he made it to the line within the first group and moved up to 10th in the GC."
