Sam Bennett was forced into an all-out road race on the Tour de France today and when Peter Sagan and Matteo Trentin put it up to the Irish rider he had all the answers.
Carrick-on-Suir's Bennett now has a huge lead in the points classification as the riders face into tomorrow's TT, with just the final stage - the 'sprinters' world championships' - to come after that test, onto the iconic Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris.
While Bennett has built his assault on the Tour points classification on his sprinting prowess, he was drawn into a road race today by Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) and Trentin (CCC Team).
The 166.5km staged from Bourg-en-Bresse to Champagnole
was marked by aggression from the start, with four riders still just clear of
the peloton by the time the riders reached the intermediate sprint at Mournans after
117km of racing.
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However, in the sprint for 5th place at that point Bennett led Sagan over the line to gain one point on him with Bennett’s team mate Michael Mørkøv next and then Trentin.
In the attacks after the sprint, on undulating terrain, a quality breakaway went clear. And when Sagan and Trentin joined that move, so too did Bennett.
In that move were: Luke Rowe (Ineos Grenadiers), Peter
Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), Oliver Naesen (Ag2r La Mondiale), Sam Bennett and Dries
Devenyns (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Greg van
Avermaet and Matteo Trentin (CCC Team), Jack Bauer and Luka Mezgec
(Mitchelton-Scott), Nikias Arndt and Soren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb).
With 25km to go they were being chased by a three-man
group: Edvald Boasson Hagen (NTT), Bryan Coquard (B&B) and Hugo Hofstetter
(Israel).
Though Sagan and Trentin would try and get clear of the
breakaway, Bennett stuck to them like glue; racing them head-to-head and
proving a match for them.
And that’s the way it would stay to the finish, though the 12-man breakaway would splinter with Soren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb) countering a Trentin attack with 15km to go and opening a huge gap to win solo; his second victory on this Tour and his team’s third win.
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On the finish line Andersen was 53 seconds ahead of a group of five; Mezgec, Stuyven, Van Avermaet, Naesen and Arndt in that order.
Rowe was next, in 7th place, a further six seconds back,
followed by the green jersey clad Bennett in 8th place, just three seconds
behind Rowe.
Bennett won the three-up sprint for 8th from Sagan and
Trentin; apt considering that is the order of the top three in the points
classification.
That means Bennett now has 319 points in the competition to Sagan’s 264 and Trentin’s 250 – that’s the classification effectively won for the Irish cyclist.
Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Nicolas Roche (Team
Sunweb) both finished in the main peloton today – in 117th and 123rd
respectively – some 7:38 down on the stage winner.
As the main general classification men finished in the
bunch there was not change at the top of the standings.
Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) holds yellow going into tomorrow’s La Planche des Belles Filles TT by 57 seconds from Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates).
Miguel Ángel López (Astana) is 3rd at 1:27 and Richie Porte (Trek Segafredo) is 4th at 3:06.
Though Porte has 1:39 to make up on Lopez in the 36.2km TT tomorrow to make the podium, it is not impossible.
All but the last 10km of that test is flat or only moderately uphill; terrain that Porte will perform much better on than Lopez.
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