Sam Bennett has missed out on a second stage win at Paris-Nice, and lost the race lead, on a day when several late crashes made for a very sketchy finale.
Bennett tangled with an Arkea Samsic rider with 1.2km to go, though both stayed upright. Just 200 metres up the road several riders crashed near the front on a corner, with most of the filed behind them forced to hit the brakes.
As that was taking place, Team DSM had wrestled control of the front of the bunch from Trek-Segafredo and really strung it out in the final kilometre. Race leader Sam Bennett was caught about 15 riders back as the front was lined out.
Trek-Segafredo, working for Mads Pedersen, bullied their way back onto the front of the bunch in time for the final right hand corner with 550 metres to go.
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At that point, Sam Bennett was 11th wheel, just behind his Deceuninck-QuickStep lead-out man Michael Mørkøv. However, while the Irishman routinely comes from that far back to win, he wasn't able to pull it out of the bag today.
The final Trek-Segafredo lead-out man, Jasper Stuyven, proved so strong that the gap between him on the front of the peloton and Bennett, about eight places back, was too big to make up in the sprint.
Trek-Segafredo had given Pedersen the perfect lead-out but it was Team DSM's Cees Bol who won it very strongly from Pedersen, Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange) and Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels p/b KTM).
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Bennett gained all the way to the line on those ahead of him but started his sprint too far back and had to settle for 5th place on the day.
Not only did Bennett miss out on stage victory, he also lost his race lead to Matthews after the Australian gained time at the intermediate sprints and also beat his Irish rival in the finishing sprint.
Matthews now leads overall, going into the stage 3 TT tomorrow, by four seconds from Pedersen, with Bennett now 3rd overall on the same time as the Dane.
Today’s 188km stage 2 from Oinville-sur-Montcient to Amilly was a mostly dull affair; the race splitting only slightly in the crosswinds just after the midway point before quickly coming back together.
And with no threatening breakaway to give the stage some shape, Bennett’s Deceuninck-QuickStep had a relatively stress-free day before the finishing sprint.
While Bennett held the yellow jersey starting out today, Matthews became equal leader on time on the road when he claimed time bonuses at both intermediate sprints.
Ireland’s Bennett did not contest those sprints as he was clearly giving his full focus to trying to win the stage. Matthews (BikeExchange) claimed a total of five seconds, by winning the first intermediate sprint and claiming 2nd at the next one.
That was the exact time he trailed Sam Bennett starting today as Matthews also claimed five seconds in bonuses on the opening stage intermediate sprints. And when Matthews claimed more bonus seconds for 3rd on the stage today he took yellow.
More to come.
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