Sam Bennett takes first WorldTour win with outrageous late kick
Sam Bennett was in a league of his own today when he sprinted to a stunning win on stage three of Paris-Nice. The Bora Hansgrohe rider absolutely nailed the sprint which was contested by many of the world's fastest men.
By Brian Canty
Sam Bennett has taken the biggest win of his career to date with a huge victory at Paris-Nice this afternoon.
It was the Carrick rider’s first WorldTour triumph and the result removes any doubt that he belongs at the very top category of the sport’s sprinters now.
That the win comes in such a prestigious race makes it special. But the manner in which he beat so many riders rightly regarded as among the best makes it even more so.
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Bennett came with a perfectly timed jump off the back wheel of Alexandr Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin) who was simply left for dead at the end of the 190-kilometre stage.
The Irishman had a couple of bike lengths on Norwegian rider Kristoff and John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) in third.
Marcel Kittel, Andre Greipel and race leader Arnaud Demare were just some of the others in a top 10 deep with quality.
Dan Martin dropped a couple of places to ninth on GC but is still just 23 seconds down on Demare.
Nicolas Roche also finished in the main bunch, in 62nd place and Philip Deignan was 153rd, some 1:25 down in man of the moment Bennett.
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How it unfolded towards an Irish win
Kittel, who has been riding very well and is widely regarded as the fastest in the world, was given a perfect lead-out but he was unable to keep his effort going all the way to the line.
After two days of very hard racing in which the crosswinds split the race to pieces, today’s stage was long at 190km but followed more of a traditional script for a sprint day.
An early breakaway of Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale), Ben King (Dimension Data) and Romain Combaud (Delko-Marseille) rode clear almost from the gun and got a gap of seven minutes before Demare’s team mates began to close the gap.
And while the three leaders would split up as in the final 25km when the gap dropped below one minute, they were swept up paving the way for a big sprint.
However, Latour and Combaud put up a very impressive fight and were only caught with 1km remaining.
The final was jittery in the rain and with so many sprinters looking to take a stage.
And with Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) crashing with a couple of kilometres remaining his downfall simply added to the tension.
QuickStep looked in poll position to take the victory with Kittel once the last of the three escapees had been caught, but Bennett had other ideas and his final kick demolished the others.
More to follow.
Stage 3: Chablis to Chalon-sur-Saône (190km)
1 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Hansgrohe 4:31:14
2 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha-Alpecin
3 John Degenkolb (Ger) Trek-Segafredo
4 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors
5 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb
6 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ
7 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal
8 Christophe Laporte (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
9 Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) Dimension Data
10 Magnus Cort Nielsen (Den) Orica-Scott
11 Daniel Mclay (GBr) Fortuneo - Vital Concept
12 Oliver Naesen (Bel) AG2R La Mondiale
13 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Direct Energie
14 Marc Sarreau (Fra) FDJ
15 Riccardo Minali (Ita) Astana Pro Team
42 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors
69 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team
153 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky 0:01:25
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