Sam Bennett top 5 in European Champs as Fabio Jakobsen wins | Video | Sticky Bottle

*Fabio Jakobsen takes the gold medal at the Europeans today, with Ireland's Sam Bennett in 5th place in the bunch sprint in Munich*

Sam Bennett has taken 5th place in the men's road race at the European Championships in Munich, Germany, today. The gold medal was won by Dutch rider Fabio Jakobsen, who looked by far the fastest in the mass bunch sprint that settled the medals.

Jakobsen had the benefit of a great lead-out to the line from Danny van Poppel, who is usually Bennett's lead-out man when they race for Bora-hansgrohe. Once Jakobsen hit the front in full flight, he claimed victory by some margin in the 141-rider race.

Arnaud Démare (France) claimed the silver while Tim Merlier (Belgium) won the bronze. Van Poppel was 4th and Bennett 5th followed by Luka Mezgec (Slovenia), Elia Viviani (Italy) and Alexander Kristoff (Norway).

The Belgians took it up on the front in the final kilometre for Merlier, who was the first of the fancied men to open his sprint. Van Poppel was right behind hm, with Jakobsen in his wheel. As Merlier moved to his right to close the door a little on Van Poppel, Jakobsen passed Merlier on the other side to win.

Bennett opted to stay behind Démare, though the Belgians and Dutch moved earlier and more rapidly in the dash to the line, with the Irishman having to settle for 5th.

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Bennett had team mates Ryan Mullen, Matt Teggart and Rory Townsend looking after him on the finishing circuit. Eddie Dunbar helped to ensure Bennett was well placed - and paced - on the climbs earlier in the race, when the Italian team tried to put the fast men under pressure.

As well as Bennett placing 5th today, Townsend was 40th at 18 seconds, Mullen placed 72nd at 46 seconds, Dunbar was 90th at 1:45 and Teggart - fresh from his 4th place at the Commonwealth Games last weekend - was 108th at 3:31.

The fight for the medals came down to a bunch sprint after Lukas Pöstlberger (Austria) and Silvan Dillier (Switzerland) spent much of the race out front in a breakaway. Later in the race, Stefan Bissegger (Switzerland) attacked with about 3.5km to go, though the Dutch team quickly brought him back, knowing Jakobsen was the fastest in the field.