Ireland's Sam Bennett romps in for huge result in Tirreno-Adriatico bunch sprint

Ireland's Sam Bennett, extreme right, taking 4th on stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico today; his first sprint in a WorldTour race.

In his first sprint against world class opposition in World Tour race, Sam Bennett has gone very close to a podium finish in taking 4^th place on the opening road stage of Stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico.

The NetApp-Endura 23-year-old was bested to the win by Italian fastman Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling), with former U23 world champion Arnaud Demare (FDJ.fr) in 2^nd place and André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) in 3^rd.

Overnight race leader, and the self-styled fastest man in the world, Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) failed to make the top 10.

There were also some other really big names just behind Bennett including Peter Sagan (Cannondale), Davide Appollonio (AG2R La Mondiale), Filippo Fortin (Bardiani-CSF), Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida), Tony Hurel (Europcar) and Kristian Sbaragli (IMTN – Qhubeka).

Bennett has been on a significant upward curve since winning a stage in the Tour of Britain last September and further underlined his sprinting ability when he finished second to Milan-Sanremo winner Gerald Ciolek on stage two and then to multiple Tour de France stage victor Mark Cavendish on the final day in London.

Already on the radar of several teams, the performances of the-then An Post Chainreaction rider earned him a two-year deal with the NetApp Endura team.

While hit by illness and injury during the winter in previous years, he stayed problem free this winter and also changed coach towards the end of last year, though also retaining the services of long term coach and mentor Martin O’Loughlin.

Bennett began racing with his new German squad four weeks ago in the Tour of Qatar and went on to the Tour of Oman.

Those opening races went well, with third place on the final stage of the latter and a further four top ten finishes bolstering his confidence and leading to him believing he could win the Clasica de Almeria last Sunday week.

He duly did so, blasting in ahead of Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar), Davide Vigano (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA), Fran Ventoso (Movistar) and the others in the front group.

His 4^th place finish today is perhaps of greater significance, coming as it does in his first WorldTour race.

We’ll have more in a while.