UPDATED: Sam Bennett back with a bang; puts himself in Olympic contention

The winning move: Bennett third from left; Bagdonas is further back; third from right

By Graham Healy
Ireland’s Sam Bennett has demonstrated today that he has plenty of good performances in his legs for the months ahead, taking his best result of the season so far with 3rd in the Ronde Van Noord Holland (1.2).

His teammate Gediminas Bagdonas won the race today, Sunday, in what was one of the best team performances the Irish-Belgian outfit has ever enjoyed at this level. The men in green were 1^st, 3^rd, 5^th and 12^th.
Grabbing a podium finish in such a big race comes at a great time for Bennett; just weeks before the An Post Ras. It also follows a tough opening few months of the season in which he was sidelined for a prolonged period with a virus.

However, the word on the grapevine in Ireland was that he had wintered extremely well and was in the form of his life heading into the 2012 campaign. He will be hoping that today’s result is the beginnings of a period of top form, during which he can make good his undoubted potential on the European scene this year.

Today’s result also bags the 21-year-old some very valuable points towards qualifying for the Olympics under Cycling Ireland’s scoring system.

Today’s UCI 1.2 race started and finished in Zaandam and consisted of a 205-kilometre route around the province of Noord Holland.

Early on, a 16-man group went clear which contained both Niko Eeckhout and Joren Segers from the An Post-Sean Kelly team. As the peloton split into a number of groups behind, Bennett found himself in a chasing group with Bagdonas. At the 75-kilometre mark they trailed the leaders by 1:35.

With 70 kilometres remaining, Eeckhout and Segers made a valiant attempt to break clear. The duo gained nearly a minute on the chasers, as Bennett’s group bridged across to that chase group just behind his two team mates.
Eeckhout then dropped Segers and pressed on alone as the group behind splintered. That chase group whittled down to nine men, including both Bagdonas and Bennett. Eeckhout was eventually brought back as the An Post-Sean Kelly duo in the group chasing him took advantage of not having to work in the chase.

The leading ten riders then stretched their advantage to over two minutes on the next group and Bagdonas showed he was on form by taking one of the next sprints.
With 19km remaining the Lithuanian went clear on his own and quickly pulled out a big lead. The group behind left it too late to organise a chase and the 2011 An Post Ras winner held on to win by 35 seconds.

In the sprint for second, Bennett was just beaten by Jeff Vermeulen (Metec Continental Cyclingteam). Niko Eeckhout rounded off a great day for the team by taking 5th despite having been in the early escape.
The overall performance of the squad today will give them great confidence in advance of next month’s An Post Ras; with Bagdonas and Mark McNally already in great form in recent weeks and now Bennett’s form apparently coming to the boil nicely.

The bold attack: An Post-Sean Kelly’s Segers and Eeckhout went for it today

Result: Ronde Van Noord Holland

1 Gediminas Bagdonas (An Post - Sean Kelly Team) 4hrs 56mins 0 secs
2 Jeff Vermeulen (Metec) @ 39secs
3 Sam Bennett (An Post - Sean Kelly Team)
4 Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (MTN - Qhubeka)
5 Niko Eeckhout (An Post - Sean Kelly Team)
6 Bart Van Haaren (Koga)
7 Wesley Kreder (Rabobank Continental Team)
8 Elmar Reinders (Metec) NED
9 Dex Groen (Metec) NED all same time
10 Jasper Bovenhuis (Rabobank Continental Team) @ 12:31
11 Luc Hagenaars (Metec) @ 13:36
12 Joren Segers (An Post - Sean Kelly Team) @ 14:16
13 Jim Van Den Berg (Koga)
14 Ivar Slik (Rabobank Continental Team)
15 Yanto Barker (UK Youth)
16 Danny Van Poppel (Rabobank Continental Team)
17 Patrick Ruckert (Parkhotel Rooding)
18 Dylan Groenewegen (De Rijke)
19 Maarten De Jonge (Raiko - Stolting)
20 Jos Pronk (Ruiter Dakkapellen) all same time