Sam Bennett's woes have continued in Belgium today, with the 10-time Grand Tour stage winner exiting Renewi Tour (2.UWT) on the penultimate stage.
As Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale's Bennett was leaving the race, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was taking his first win of the week after a late crash disrupted some of those riders close to the front.
Philipsen was beaten into 2nd place yesterday and on stage 1 by Jonathan Milan (Lidl Trek) but made no mistake today after a strong lead-out by his world champion team mate, Mathieu van der Poel.
Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike) was 2nd today, with Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny) placing 3rd; Philipsen winning it quite comfortably on a day when Milan looked like he did not have the legs rather than being impact by the crash, around 20 riders from the front, in the final kilometre.
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There was no change in the overall, with the stage 2 TT winner Alec Segaert (Lotto Dstny) leading overall by seven seconds from Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers), with Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers) 3rd at 11 seconds.
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For Bennett, his exit from the race follows his withdrawal from the Tour de France during stage 17 and his abandon on the final stage of Tour de Pologne earlier this month.
His team coach Stephen Barrett - a former international road rider for Ireland - told stickybottle last week Bennett had suffered stomach issues on the Tour, which significantly impact his intake of food and fluids, forcing him out.
Barrett added Bennett had experience similar issues in Poland a couple of weeks ago. At the time of writing, it was unclear of the same issue was the cause of his withdrawal in Belgium today. We'll update if any further information becomes available.
