Sam Bennett’s Bora-hansgrohe was perhaps a victim of its own success yesterday in Romandie; rival teams unwilling to cooperate with them to bring home the breakaway.
Bennett and Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) would
have been hot favourites for the stage 2 victory had it come down to a sprint.
But such has been Bennett’s win rate this year that the others, even Viviani’s team mates, would not put their backs into the chase.
And when the breakaway still had two of its maximum five minutes gap with one lap of the finishing circuit remaining, Bora-hansgrohe was still left on its own doing the work.
Up front with 15km remaining Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) dropped the breakaway men he was with and went on to win. While Bennett took the sprint for 2nd place, it was a lost chance.
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“That was a tough day in the saddle,” he said of a 174km
stage in the rain into Morges.
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“It was raining all day long and
we knew that it will be difficult to close the gap due to the wet roads.
“But congrats to Küng, he rode a smart race. I gave my
best to win the sprint out of the bunch and I am satisfied that it worked out.
“That was more or less the only chance for the sprinters
here at the Tour de Romandie.”
It is not impossible that Bennett may get another chance. The course in Switzerland is undulating and it would depend how the remainder of the stages is raced, though it is unlikely.
Bennett has won at least one stage on every race he has ridden so far this year; taking two at Paris-Nice and two at the Tour of Turkey.
He also won one stage apiece at Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina and UAE Tour
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