Sam Bennett's Tour de France has turned into the stuff of dreams as he won the final stage of the race today into Paris as well as taking the green jersey.
The Carrick-on-Suir man pulled off a very rare form of success; taking the final stage on the Champs-Elysées with the green jersey on his back, something only five other riders have ever done. And he was absolutely ecstatic as he celebrated after the finish line with his team.
Once again Bennett, so reliable and impressive from the opening stage on this race, was looked after brilliantly at the intermediate sprint today and at the finish; the Deceuninck-QuickStep Irishman simply unstoppable and backed fully by his team.
He won the stage with some comfort, kicking hard and making sure nobody else got close to him after also positioning himself perfectly.
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World champion Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) was 2nd and Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) was 3rd.
Both Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb) and Dan Martin (Israel
Start-Up Nation) tailed off the peloton on the final lap today, as many in the
field did.
Martin finished in 89th place, some 34 seconds down on
stage winner and compatriot Sam Bennett.
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Roche was 144th at 3:47 after helping his team to position
its sprinter Cees Bol, who was a disappointing 18th on the stage having been on
the podium twice earlier in the race.
As the race finished in a bunch sprint there was no change in the overall; Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates) winning the general classification aged 21 years.
The young Slovenian demolished yesterday's stage 20 TT to take the race lead from compatriot Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), who was 2nd overall, with Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) rounding out the final podium.
Lots more to come.
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