Irish cyclist Sam Bennett recovered enough to be able to hit the front in the closing stages in Australia. He would assist team mate Peter Sagan to victory at the People's Choice Criterium.
Sam Bennett helps Peter Sagan to victory in Australia
Ruled out by illness of trying for a result himself, Sam Bennett has helped team mate Peter Sagan to victory in Australia.
The Irishman has been ill for about a week and has not trained much. It meant he was a doubt for the People's Choice Criterium in Adelaide earlier today.
However, he did take to the start line and was in the shake-up at the end of the 50km race.
Bennett helped to position and lead out Peter Sagan. And the Irishman clearly had no sprint when he reached for it; not surprising given his illness.
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Sagan hit the front and powered home ahead of Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) and Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott).
Bennett did not contest the sprint; drifting back in the group after peeling off the front. And he would finish in 13th place.
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However, both he and his Bora-hansgrohe team will be relieved that he was in a position to race after being ill.
And hopefully that recovery will be straightforward and he gets a good run at the races to come in Australia.
They include the Tour Down Under where Bennett would be a favourite for a stage win.
??@petosagan of ??@BORAhansgrohe wins the ??People’s Choice Classic; the criterium that acts as a prelude to ??@tourdownunder #TDU #PeoplesChoiceAuClassic pic.twitter.com/qtiAFtOV2h
— World Cycling Stats (@wcstats) January 14, 2018
Sun, Jan 14th: People's Choice Criterium
1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 1:04:25
2 Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal
3 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
4 Elia Viviani (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
5 Simone Consonni (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
6 Chris Lawless (GBr) Team Sky
7 Sam Welsford (Aus) UniSA-Australia
8 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) LottoNL-Jumbo
9 Jasha Sütterlin (Ger) Movistar Team
10 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data
11 Carlos Barbero Cuesta (Spa) Movistar Team
12 Mads Würtz Schmidt (Den) Katusha-Alpecin
13 Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Team Sunweb
14 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:03
15 Valerio Agnoli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
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