Sam Bennett may have taken 5th last weekend in his comeback race after coming down with Covid-19 on La Vuelta but the Irishman was a little further away from the front at the end of Paris-Bourges today.
The Irishman's Bora-hansgrohe team opted instead to back its young emerging German sprinter, Jordi Meeus, in the final sprint today and while he did well, it was Belgian sprinter Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
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Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) took 2nd place while Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) was 3rd. Alexander Kristoff, riding his last race for Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux, was 4th with Bennett's team mate Meeus - who won the race last year - placing 5th.
Irishman Bennett, who was 5th at Sparkassen Münsterland Giro in Germany on Monday, finished in the bunch in 36th place. Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) was the only other Irish rider in the event today, placing 80th at 29 seconds after 198km of racing.
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Bora-hansgrohe's sports director Jean-Pierre Heynderickx said while Meeus did well, the team waited for too long to bring him towards the front, with the pace too high in the closing kilometres as they made their effort.
"Jordi was outside the top ten in the last corner and started his sprint early. He had good legs, but it was too late. Fifth place is not bad, but for sure not what would have been possible today," he said. "But like I said, overall, the team did a good job, and all have been committed. In sprints a lot of things can happen and today we didn’t get it right."
Bennett will be in action again on Sunday in Paris-Tours.
