Tightly packed: Sam Bennett comes home in 8th place in the free-for-all sprint to the line at the end of today's sixth and final stage at the Tour of Qatar.
By Gerard Cromwell
Ireland’s Sam Bennett took another top 10 placing at the Tour of Qatar today, finishing eighth on the final stage to complete an impressive stage race debut for his new NetApp Endura team.
Today’s stage was won by French sprinter Arnaud de Mare of FDJ.fr ahead of Tinkoff Saxo’s Daniele Benati and Bernard Eisel of Team Sky.
The finish was a free for all that saw most of the big names left without a lead-out train as the road widened considerably in the closing kilometres, with yesterday’s winner Andre Greipel not even making the top ten.
Advertisement
Bennett sprinted in the centre of the road and again looked slightly impeded in the final gallop to the line.
He will however take confidence from his first race in the paid ranks and has also earned the full backing of his NetApp Endura squad this week.
Related News
Bennett began the six-day 2.HC ranked race with 14th on the opening stage, which was good enough to see him don the white jersey as best U25 rider.
Day two to Al Khor Corniche was the only sprint finish the Carrick-On-Suir youngster wasn’t involved in, missing the split and eventually losing seven minutes and his white jersey on the day.
Since then, Bennett has been consistently highly placed in the bunch sprint finales this week, finishing fifth on stage four, seventh on stage five and eighth today.
While his NetApp Endura teammates have thrown their full weight behind him in Qatar this week and have done their best to get Bennett to the front in the final kilometres every day, team boss Alex Vega admits they are still learning as they go.
If Bennett and his lead out train continue to improve as they have done this week, it shouldn’t be long before we see him on a podium somewhere soon.
Feb 9th to 14th: Tour of Qatar (UCI 2.HC)
Feb 14th, Stage 6: Sealine Beach Resort - Doha Corniche 113.5km
| 1 | Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ.fr | ||
| 2 | Daniele Bennati (Ita) Tinkoff-Saxo | ||
| 3 | Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Team Sky | ||
| 4 | Tom Boonen (Bel) Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team | ||
| 5 | Meher Hasnaoui (Tun) Skydive Dubai Cycling Team | ||
| 6 | Silvan Dillier (Swi) BMC Racing Team | ||
| 7 | Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana Pro Team | ||
| 8 | Sam Bennett (Irl) Team NetApp-Endura | ||
| 9 | Sebastian Lander (Den) BMC Racing Team | ||
| 10 | Nicola Ruffoni (Ita) Bardiani CSF |
Topics
