Sam Bennett may have had the yellow jersey at Sibiu Cycling Tour in Romania today but that didn't stop the Irishman going to the front and working for much of the stage of his Bora-hansgrohe team mates.
On yesterday's opening stage, Bennett took victory into Sibiu, after 199km of racing, in a mass bunch sprint; his first win since January and only his second of the season. Though he expressed clear relief at getting back to winning ways, his own ambitions were put aside on the road today during stage 2.
The race took the riders 155km from Sibiu to Bâlea Lac, finishing on the 23.9 km HC climb, with an average gradient of 5.9 per cent. That terrain was never going to suit Bennett, but Bora-hansgrohe had Maximilian Schachmann and Florian Lipowitz for the climbs.
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So when a breakaway got up the road today - and Bora-hansgrohe and Lotto Dstny, as the two biggest teams in the race - stepped up to chase, Bennett joined that effort on the front in his yellow jersey.
In the end, Schachmann and Lipowitz had to settle for the minor placings today as 21-year-old Belgian Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) went clear solo on the final climb to win the day and take Bennett's yellow jersey. He was 24 seconds up on the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team duo of Matteo Badilatti and Mark Donovan.
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Bennett finished in 111th, in a group at 27:50, having performed his team duties for the day and then switched into survival mode on the final climb. Tomorrow's stage 3 will be another uphill finish, on the 17.7km cat 1 climb of Păltiniș after 202km of racing.
Tomorrow's stage is more complicated as it also features a cat 1 ascent shortly after the start before a minor decent and then going uphill again. That will result in an even harder day in the saddle for the non-climbers like Bennett.
However, the Irishman will focus on trying to get to the finish in the best condition possible before aiming for a stage win on Sunday, with the riders face a mainly flat road stage, where Bennett will again be favourite to win, and a short TT to conclude in the afternoon.
