Sam Bennett's lead-out train derailed by late crash at Heistse Pijl | Video | Sticky Bottle

*Sam Bennett will have another chance tomorrow to aim for victory after events conspired against him and his team at Heistse Pijl today*

Sam Bennett's hopes of collecting a second season win at Heistse Pijl in Belgium today were derailed in the finale when two members of his lead-out train were involved in a crash during a sketchy conclusion to the race.

Danny van Poppel and Jonas Koch both came down in the crash with about 7km to go while another member of Bennett's Bora-hansgrohe train, Shane Archbald, suffered a puncture. It meant the Irish sprint was well out of position in the technical run-in, though Ryan Mullen was at the front and the Irish champion finished 11th.

The race - some 193km from Vosselaar to Heist-op-den-Berg - was won by 20-year-old Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Soudal), the youngest in a new group of sprinters very much making their mark this season. De Lie, who now has five victories in 2022, benefitted from a strong lead-out by his team and also picked the perfect moment to kick.

He allowed former European champion Giacomo Nizzolo (Israel-Premier Tech) to open his sprint first and then came around him for victory. Nizzolo claimed 2nd place with Mark Cavendish in 3rd. The British rider's QuickStep Alpha Vinyl team had worked hard to bring back some attackers and in the final push to the line Cavendish lost some ground due to splits at the front of the bunch, leaving himself with too much group to make up.

For his part, Ireland's Bennett was also caught out and did not contend in the sprint, finishing in 58th at 44 seconds. The 31-year-old will race again tomorrow at Brussels Cycling Classic and on Monday at Ronde van Limburg looking to add to his first win of the year, four weeks ago, at Eschborn-Frankfurt.

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Torsten Schmidt, sports director at Bora-hansgrohe, said the team would press the re-set button for tomorrow after the disappointment and mishaps during today's race in Belgium.

“We wanted to go for the win with Sam today, but in the final phase of the race several things went against us. First, Shane had a puncture, then Danny and Jonas crashed. Both would have been a fundamental part in our plan and as a result we simply had not in been in position before the last tricky part," he said.

"That’s a pity, but tomorrow we’ll try again. Danny seems to be ok, with Jonas we need to do some more medical checks and I keep my fingers crossed that he will be ready for tomorrow."