Sam Bennett was forced to settle for the runner-up placing on stage 5 of Criterium du Dauphine after Wout van Aert beat him to the line.
In a messy finish, where Bennett faced late attackers and
tricky turns, Jumbo-Visma’s Van Aert hit the front and proved much too strong.
Sam Bennett got swamped a little after his Bora-hansgrohe
team lost control of the front of the bunch.
And though the Irishman came through traffic with some impressive bike handling, he was well beaten by the winner.
It was Van Aert’s second stage win in two days having
proven victorious in yesterday’s TT in Roanne.
For Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) the chance of being the
first Irishman to win two Dauphine stages in the same year since 1985 is now
lost.
The racing hits the climbs for the last three days,
meaning Stephen Roche remains the last Irishman to claim two stages in the same
edition.
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Back in 1985 Roche won both the prologue and the stage 7b individual TT.
Today’s 201km stage from Boën-sur-Lignon to Voiron looked
to be going perfectly for Bennett when a small breakaway got clear.
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His team did the lion’s share on the front for the day
and Yoann Bagot (Vital Concept), Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) and Alessandro De
Marchi (CCC) were recaptured in the closing stages.
However, as the final kilometre was about to begin
Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension
Data) attacked.
Shane Archbold was on the front of the bunch as the sole
Bora-hansgrohe man left to lead out Bennett.
Though the two attackers were impressively brought back
by Archbold with about 500 metres to go, the Kiwi was then spent and Bennett
was left to his own devices.
He stalled as it was too early to open the sprint, but he
was then swamped by three or four riders.
Van Aert and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep)
seized their moment in sprinting for the line.
That duo and a number of others got ahead of Bennett, and
while the Irishman fought back he couldn’t get past Van Aert, who ran out the
very impressive winner.
Bennett lunged at the finish line and had to be content
with 2nd place. The bunch finish resulted in no change on the overall; Adam
Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) still has yellow.
Ireland’s Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) finished 14th on
the stage, on the same time was winner Van Aert.
Martin remains in 13th place some 1:13 on race leader Yates, with three mountainous stages to come.
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