Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) finished 2nd today on stage 6 at UAE Tour just 24 hours after claiming 3rd place on stage 5. And while the Irishman was beaten by a faster Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) today and Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco AlUla) got the better of him yesterday, Bennett wasn't too far away from victory.
The Irishman arguably had the best lead-out on the race over the last two days, with Danny van Poppel again doing at sterling job after Ryan Mullen did the big watts turns to get his two team mates into position. And while Bennett could not convert that work into a win, he was not losing faith after the finish of today's race.
Tomorrow's final stage finishes on the Jebel Hafeet climb, which will not be one for the fast men. That means Bennett comes out of this without a hoped-for stage win. However, he said the competition in the sprints in UAE were intense and believed he could win more races soon.
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"The sprints today and yesterday were pretty hectic," Sam Bennett after his runner-up spot today after 166km into Abu Dhabi Breakwater. "There's tough competition in this race among the different sprint lead-outs.
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"But the guys did a fantastic job on both days, and we arrived at the finale in the perfect position. Unfortunately there are so many sprinters competing for the win here, and some guys take a risk and go early and ultimately get the reward. It's hard to respond to so many sprinters in the fast finishes. But we'll be back up and running in the next bunch sprint in the next races."
Bora-hansgrohe sports director Bernhard Eisel, whose reviews of his riders' performances sounded at times cranky over the last week, said Bennett was close today to winning and believed his form was on track. He believed his riders came through just a little late in the sprint today.
"We knew in advance that there would be a headwind on the finishing straight, which would make the sprint more difficult. But Merlier was simply faster today," Eisel said. "The legs were there, but we have to try to do better next time.
"Tomorrow there's a mountain finish and Ben and Emu are very motivated for the last stage. On the first few days we had temperatures around 22 degrees, but today it was very hot, at about 37 degrees and we hope it will be more comfortable tomorrow."
