Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) has concluded his efforts in the Sibiu Cycling Tour with a full gas ride in the short TT this evening to take a podium placing; a rare occurrence for sprinters. Indeed, the Irish rider missed winning the stage by only the narrowest of margins.
The TT - which also saw a change at the top of the general classification - completes a successful outing for Bennett, who went to Romania trying to get his season back on track after his non-selection for the Tour de France.
He claimed victory on the opening stage, and the first yellow jersey, on Thursday in a bunch sprint. He repeated that on this morning's stage 4a, just 24 hours after his team mate, Maximilian Schachmann, won stage 3 on the summit finish to Păltiniș.
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Today's final day of action was a split stage; a morning road race of 97.3km, starting and finishing in Sibiu, and an evening TT of just 3.3km in the same city.
The TT was won by Polish rider Marceli Bogusławski (Alpecin-Deceuninck Development Team) in a time of 4:19, with Bennett 2nd just one second down. The podium was completed by Czech rider Tomáš Kopecký (TDT-Unibet Cycling Team), who finished just two seconds down.
While Matteo Badilatti (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) went into the TT with the yellow jersey, he was only two seconds up on his team mate, Mark Donovan, in 2nd place. And when British rider Donovan placed 5th in the TT, just four seconds off victory and 18 seconds up on Badilatti, he took the final yellow jersey.
Donovan ran out the overall winner by eight seconds from stage 2 winner, Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny), with Czech rider Jakub Otruba (ATT Investments) 3rd overall at 12 seconds. While Bennett's team mate, Schachmann, was just 29 seconds down this morning, and tried to get up the road in the morning stage in a bid to gain time, he crashed and had to abandon.
As well as winning two stages and finishing 2nd in the TT, Bennett also won the points classification. He scored 78 points, well ahead of competition runner-up Milan Menten (Lotto Dstny), who scored 48 points and was runner-up in both of the stages won by his Irish rival.
