Sam Bennett's hopes of taking his second win of the season, as he builds towards a hoped-for start at the Tour de France, were not realised today when he was dropped on the opening stage of Critérium du Dauphiné. The Irishman, riding for Bora-hansgrohe, was distanced by the peloton on a climb with about 33km to go. It was a day when the hills were modest, but they were raced hard.
While Bennett's team and Jumbo Visma both stepped up to try and close down the early breakaway, the escapees still had almost two minutes in hand as the peloton hit the 1km cat 4 climb of Côte du Rocher de l'Aigle, for the second passage of three, with 35km to go. Soudal-QuickStep were on the front going especially hard when Bennett and Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco AlUla) were dropped.
Advertisement
The last of the breakaway men - Rune Herregodts (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) - put in a brilliant effort and was only caught with about 10 metres of the stage remaining. Christope Laporte (Jumbo Visma) charged past him just before the finish line to win from Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates), with Herregodts placing 3rd.
Herregodts likely would have held on to win but for a massive turn on the front by Jonas Vingegaard for almost 1km, to about 350m to go, in a bid to set up Laporte for the win. Bennett's team said while it expected to contest the finish with the Irish sprinter, it was still happy Danny van Poppel was in the gallop and placed 6th.
Related News
“As expected, it was a tough day, which was made even more difficult by the rain. We expected that it wouldn’t be a classic bunch sprint, but we counted on contesting the finish with Sam Bennett," said Bora-hansgrohe sports director Bernie Eisel.
"In the end, however, only Jumbo-Visma and us were working towards a sprint, so the race turned out to be really hard and difficult to control. Overall, the guys rode well today. We are very happy with Danny van Poppel's sixth place and, looking at the GC, we had a solid start to this Dauphiné.“
Bennett had said before the start of the stage he believed he would be able to cope with the climbs today - three passages of the Côte du Rocher de l'Aigle in the final 65km. However, the manner of the racing - especially the penultimate and final passages of the climb - meant neither Bennett nor Groenewegen were in the 80-rider bunch at the finish.
Because the course is quite mixed this year - with tricky small climbs in stages usually better suited to the sprinters - Bennett and Groenewegen are the only pure sprinters in the race. However, Laporte showed today he has a devastating kick when opportunity knocks. Monday's stage 3 - some 191km from Monistrol-sur-Loire to Le Coteau - looks like the next chance for Bennett, who said today he was hoping to find his legs before the week's racing was complete.
