Ireland's Sam Bennett, second from left, storms home for his first podium finish in a WorldTour race at Tirreno-Adriatico.
Sam Bennett has this afternoon notched another first in his fledging career among pro cycling’s elite sprinters; taking 3rd in the bunch sprint that settled the opening road stage of Tirreno-Adriatico.
It was the young Irishman’s first career podium finish in a WorldTour race and came after he survived the crashes that marred the finish in Cascina.
The Bora-Argon 18 sprinter was beaten to the line by stage winner Jens Debusschere (Lotto-Soudal) and runner up Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo).
The worst of the crashes, which occurred in the charge to the line at the end of the 153km stage, seemed to be caused by Elia Viviani (Team Sky) riding into the back wheel of Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep).
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Cavendish did not fall, but his sprint was over. However, Viviani came down very hard and took a group of others with him.
Bennett in action during Wednesday's time trial that opened Tirreno-Adriatico (Photo: Sirotti)
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Thankfully for Bennett, he was in a section of the front of the bunch made up of around 15 riders that managed to avoid the carnage.
They sprinted to the line where the Irishman pushed Sagan and the Belgian national champion very hard.
The stage ended in a mass sprint after a seven-man breakaway got clear just 5km after the start and stayed away until 15km remained to the finish.
As well as the sprint finish crash, there was also a spill as the field came through the start-finish line with just a loop of 12km remaining until they were back again for the finish.
Bennett is the only Irishman in the race. He got his race underway yesterday when he was 47th in the shortened time trial win by Adriano Malori (Movistar), losing a very respectable 15 seconds to the Italian.
March 11th - 15th: Tirreno-Adriatico
Stage 1: Camaiore - Cascina (153km)
1 Jens Debusschere (Bel) Lotto Soudal 3:30:18
2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo
3 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Argon 18
4 Alexander Porsev (Rus) Team Katusha
5 Tyler Farrar (USA) MTN - Qhubeka
6 Magnus Cort Nielsen (Den) Orica GreenEdge
7 Roger Kluge (Ger) IAM Cycling
8 Nicola Ruffoni (Ita) Bardiani CSF
9 Zakkari Dempster (Aus) Bora-Argon 18
10 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Etixx - Quick-Step
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