Bora-hansgrohe were down to just four riders at Paris-Nice on the final day today and when team GC leader Aleksandr Vlasov crashed and had to withdraw, his team mates also stopped.
That
meant Sam Bennett and Ryan Mullen were pulled out of the race rather than
continue, with the team saying both Irish riders – and fellow fast man Danny
Van Poppel - had bigger goals ahead.
Bennett
has been searching for form since the start of the season after missing the
second half of last year due to injury. However, he and Mullen rode especially
well on stage 2 in the crosswinds at Paris-Nice to make the front group, though
Bennett did not have the legs to contest the sprint.
However,
the Carrick-on-Suir man cut a relaxed figure the following morning when
speaking to the media, saying he needed a little more time to build his condition.
He also expressed complete satisfaction with his new lead-out train, which
includes Irish road and TT champion Mullen, and was confident his own winning
sprint would soon return.
Advertisement
Both
Bennett and Mullen are due to be in the team line-up for next weekend’s
Milan-Sanremo. And rather that battling on to the finish today, once Vlasov
crashed the team decided to take their remaining three riders out in favour of
recovery. It capped a difficult Paris-Nice for the German team.
Its Austrian rider Felix
Großschartner was the first to fall by the wayside when he failed to finish the
opening stage due to a crash. Maximilian Schachmann did not start the stage 4
TT and Nils Politt withdrew before stage 5 - both due to illness.
Related News
It meant Bora-hansgrohe
only had Bennett, Mullen, Vlasov and Van Poppel left for the final four stages.
They were not the only team in the race to suffer in that way – as flu went
through the field. Today when the event ended just 59 riders completed the
race, from the original 154 starts last Sunday. Seven riders did not start today and 29
abandoned during the stage.
“What
a week here at Paris-Nice! In 30 years of cycling I haven’t experienced a race
with so much bad luck,” said Bora-hansgrohe directeur Torsten Schmidt.
“The
race started with tough luck and several problems for us and ended with yet
more bad luck. The crash and DNF of Aleks today marked the low point of a super
tough week for us.
“With their next goals in mind we also took Sam Bennett, Ryan Mullen and Danny van Poppel out of the race as was a super tough, windy, rainy and cold day. Paris-Nice is done and from now it’s important to fully focus on our next goals.”
Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) won the final stage solo today after dropping the rest of the general classification men in the select group on the Col d'Eze climb close to the finish. However, race leader Primož Roglič and his Jumbo Visma team mate Wout Van Aert stuck together and managed to bring the gap to Yates down to just nine seconds on the line.
It meant Roglič won the race overall from Yates by 29 seconds, though the British rider gave the Slovenian a major scare today. Yates would have won overall but for Van Aert being able to help Roglič so much in the final 10-15km today.
Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers) was 3rd overall at 2:37 and saw his challenge for the yellow jersey ended when he punctured just before the final climb today. The Colombian finished in the 12-man group sprinting for 4th today, some 1:44 down on stage winner Yates.
