Sam Bennett calls it a day in the Tour de Romandie having earlier attacked on the stage.
While today’s stage 3 profile at the Tour de Romandie stated it was a day for the sprinters, it proved to be anything but.
Ireland’s Sam Bennett, who took 2nd yesterday,
went on the attack early in a bid to get clear and perhaps contest the finish.
However, his breakaway efforts were wiped out after a number of minutes off the front.
And the uphill finish at the end of the day proved one for the climbers anyway.
After making his effort to go clear, Bennett called it a
day later in the stage, climbing off with about 130km raced.
Saturday is the queen stage of the race, finish atop a
cat 1 ascent at Torgon while the race concludes on Sunday with
a TT.
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It means that after trying early today to get clear and coming up short, there was nothing left for Bora-hansgrohe sprinter Bennett to race for.
Bennett's best chance of a victory was yesterday but Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) survived solo from the breakaway to win.
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Sam Bennett took the sprint one minute down for the runner-up spot.
After the early breakaway was swept up today, the uphill
finish in Romont and a late climb just before it saw the field split.
David Gaudu (22) gave Groupama-FDJ another win; seeing off Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) and race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) to take it.
Ireland’s Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb) was in the mix until the finish, where he lost 20 seconds and finished in 30th place.
He had placed 15th in the opening TT before
losing some time the following day when the front group whittled down to just
19 riders.
However, Roche is looking stronger on this race. And after a trying season in 2018 he looks on course for a better time this year during the second half of the campaign, when he is usually at his best.
Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo) was 115th today
at 11:38 and will hope to target Sunday’s 17km flat TT.
Roglic leads overall by six seconds from Gaudu with Costa
3rd at eight seconds.
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