Sam Bennett retains green jersey in cruise control at Paris-Nice | Video | Sticky Bottle

*Sam Bennett stops his data after his TT ride on stage 3 of Paris-Nice today; the Irishman just riding around and maintain his lead in the points classification*

After a hectic start to Paris-Nice, with a win and the yellow jersey on Sunday and 5th yesterday, Sam Bennett went into cruise control today on the stage 3 TT.

The Irish sprinter started the stage third from last as
he was 3rd overall this morning, and wearing the green points jersey for the
14.4km flat TT in Gien.

But rather than get carried away, Bennett did only what
he needed to; rode around the course within the time limit to reserve his
energy for Thursday, when the race may again end in a bunch sprint.

Bennett was caught by his minute man, 2nd placed overall Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), but simply moved aside for him and let the Dane get on with it as they neared the finish.

*Primoz Roglic didn't win the stage today but he put time into his rivals for the final yellow jersey*

The Irish sprinter, riding for Deceuninck-QuickStep, finished
in 102nd place, some 1:24 behind stage winner and new race leader Stefan Bissegger
(EF Education-Nippo).

The 22-year-old Swiss rider clocked a time of 17:34, which
was exactly the same as 2nd place rider, and Sam Bennett’s team mate, Rémi Cavagna.

However, as Bissegger was a fraction of a second faster, he
got the stage win. And as the two riders had started equal on time this morning,
Bissegger also takes the yellow jersey.

Cavagna lost both the stage win and the yellow jersey to the
young Swiss rider despite being credited with the same time as him.

In the race for the final yellow jersey, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) was the winner today; the Slovenian finishing in 3rd place and six seconds behind Bissegger and Cavagna.

*Michael Matthews took yellow from Sam Bennett yesterday and while he rode as hard as he could today to try and keep the race lead he came up short*

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Roglic gained 38 seconds on Giro d’Italia champion Tao Geoghegan
Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) and 42 and 56 seconds on last year’s runner-up Tiesj
Benoot and his Team DSM team mate Jai Hindley.

Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange) held the yellow jersey today, having taken it yesterday from Sam Bennett.

While Matthews clearly rode as hard as possible today in the fight for yellow, the Australian lost 23 seconds to Stefan Bissegger and has slipped to 9th overall.

Tomorrow’s stage 4 features seven climbs including a cat 1 – which is 7.4km at 5.9 per cent – to the finish line in Chiroubles.

🏁 🇨🇭@aka_muni remporte le contre-la-montre à Gien et prend le @MaillotJauneLCL. 💛
⏪ Revivez le dernier kilomètre.

🏁 🇨🇭@aka_muni wins the time trial in Gien and takes the @MaillotJauneLCL. 💛
⏪Relive the last kilometre.#ParisNice pic.twitter.com/zq3ARBALtH

— Paris-Nice (@ParisNice) March 9, 2021

Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-Nippo) on his way to winning the stage today. The 22-year-old has also taken the yellow jersey

Roglic is the hot favourite to take yellow, though
Bissegger and riders like Geoghegan Hart and Hindley will be out to show
themselves.

Defending champion Maximilian Schachmann of Bora-hansgrohe – 13th today and losing 16 seconds to Roglic – cannot be ruled out.

Others who need to perform tomorrow to maintain or improve their GC chances include: Brandon McNulty of UAE-Team Emirates (4th today and just 3 seconds down in Roglic) and Aleksandr Vlasov of Astana-Premier Tech, who was 16th today and 16 seconds down on Roglic.