Sam Bennett placed 3rd on today's stage 5 of the Tour Down Under; finishing very fast in a reduced bunch sprint but just running out of road to pass the two riders ahead.
The stage was won by Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT Pro Cycling) from Simone Consonni (Cofidis) and Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep).
The lead-out riders for Caleb Ewan of Lotto-Soudal went so hard on the front in the final kilometre one of them pulled Nizzolo and Consonni clear of the rest of the bunch.
However, when Ewan's last man pulled over the Australian double stage winner was nowhere to be seen and Nizzolo and Consonni were left to sprint it out for the win.
Bennett came from a long way back; finishing much faster than the two riders ahead of him but running out of time to pass them before the line.
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So far the Irishman has won a stage and been 2nd and 3rd. However, he has combined very well with his team so far and said after today's stage he was very happy with how things were going.
“We left it late this time, but a gap opened up in the last corner, which was then hard to close," he said.
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"Today we tried some new things in the final, so overall it was a good learning curve. I am happy with how I felt on the climb, with the form I had here and the team’s incredible work.
"We still have to fine-tune some small details, but I think we can be satisfied with the week we had here."
Today Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) claimed enough time bonuses to take the leader's jersey from Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo).
That means the South African defending champion goes into tomorrow's Willunga Hill stage with two seconds in hand on Porte, who has made Willunga Hill his own down the years.
In 3rd overall with one stage remaining is Australian Robert Power (Team Sunweb), just 9 seconds down, and Simon Yates (Mitchelton Scott) is next at 13 seconds.
Expect a big team effort tomorrow from Mitchelton Scott to try and work over Porte, though he must be the favourite for the overall given his record on final stage climb in recent years.
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