Sam Bennett got much closer to victory on today's stage 2 at Tour de Pologne, taking 5th place as Gerben Thijssen (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) took his first WorldTour win and the next four riders across the line were more closely matched.
Thijssen was the stage victor ahead of Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates), Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious), stage 1 winner Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) and then Bennett, with Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) 6th.
The 205.6km stage, raced in wet conditions, from Chełm to Zamość came down to a bunch sprint after the last of the day-long breakaway men, Jasper de Buyst (Lotto Soudal) was only caught with 1.5km to go. Just have he was reeled in his team mate Roger Kluge attacked but was swallowed up in sight of the line and faded to 12th.
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Bennett looked out of it initially in the sprint but he seemed to finish fastest of the top five. However, that spurt came too late and he had to be content with 5th. He said afterwards he felt his form - which he has searched for in vain, so far, this year - was coming.
"It was quite a hectic finale, with patches of wet and also dry roads, which made it harder to find a good position," he said. "However, the guys did a great job and protected me well until the very last moment.
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"Not many teams were very well organised today, so under these conditions we did the best that we could. I just think I had too many accelerations in the legs, so I didn't have the final kick necessary in the finale.
"I was disappointed with how I felt in the last 200 metres. But I think that the form is almost there, and that big result is just around the corner."
