Two Irish on podium as Sam Bennet wins and Dillon Corkery shines | Video

Having two Irish sprinters on the same podium is a unique occurrence for Irish cycling, with Sam Bennett and Dillon Corkery doing the honours today (Photo: Vaning-LNC)

Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) has taken his third victory of the season after sprinting in at the head of the field on the opening stage at Région Pays de la Loire Tour (2.1) in France.

And there was good news on the double from an Irish perspective as Dillon Corkery (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93) has continued his very impressive run by taking 3rd place; his best result of the season to date.

Bennett got a fantastic lead-out from his team at the end of 208km of racing in to La Baule-Escoublac today. His young Norwegian team mate Tord Gudmestad, who looks like a real find, powered away on the front so late into the final gallop that he took 4th place on the stage.

In the end, it was a very clear victory for Bennett, who has already won two stages at Tour de la Provence this year and appears to be in much better form than at any point over the last couple of seasons.

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He took the victory today from Italy's Giovanni Lonardi (Team Polti Visit Malta), with Ireland's Corkery taking a fantastic 3rd place and looking like a new rider now that he appears to have gotten under control his career-long issues with cramping in races.

Bennett leads overall by four seconds from Lonardi, with Corking 3rd at six seconds going in to tomorrow's stage some; some 158.5km from Cugand-la-Bernardière to Beaupréau-en-Mauges. The terrain tomorrow includes repeated short climbs in the final but may still be one for the sprinters.

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