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Sam Bennett has become the first Irishman to wear the green jersey at the Tour de France since Sean Kelly in 1989 after finishing third in today’s fiftieth. h stage.
The Tipperary man finished just behind stage winner Wout van Aert and Cees Boll, but ahead of rival Peter Sagan, who was fourth on the 183km journey from Gap to Privas.
Having also won the intermediate sprint today, Bennett (123 points) fell away from Sagan (114) in the points standings.
Desperate for a stage win of his own, Bennett couldn’t match the Belgian’s pace in the drag to the line, but the green jersey, which Kelly won four times and was also worn by 1987 Tour winner Stephen Roche, will be wide. . comfort.
“It’s special for me to be the third Irishman to wear the green jersey,” said Bennett. “I’ll do everything I can to keep it.”
“I am honored to wear (green) at least once and I am very happy that it happened today. It is difficult to go through the stages and the green jersey; today I was so focused on green that I almost forgot to actually try , for real”. to win.
“I have never had such mixed feelings in my race. I am very happy to have green but sad to have lost the stage. But I did everything I could. In the last two kilometers I had no legs to run, but I am quite happy with myself. performance at the end “.
What a sprint! Victory for Wout Van Aert! 🇧🇪
What a sprint! Victory of @WoutvanAert ! 🇧🇪# TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/JokbgJMoZo
– Tour de France ™ (@LeTour) September 2, 2020
The end of the sprint meant there should have been no changes to the overall standings, but Julian Alaphilippe, Bennett’s teammate at Deceuninck-QuickStep, was penalized 20 seconds for an illegal feed, meaning Mitchelton-Scott’s Adam Yates is done. charge of the yellow shirt.
Television footage showed Alaphilippe pulling out a bottle of water with 17.8 km remaining on the stage, breaking refueling regulations in the last 20 km.
“It’s a bit disappointing,” Bennett said of the Frenchman’s penalty. “It’s a bit of the ups and downs of today. We thought we would have yellow and green, but unfortunately we don’t have it now.”
Yates, who becomes the ninth Briton to wear the jaune jersey, said: “If I’m honest, I don’t think anyone wants to wear a jersey like this, but I think we’ll wear it tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow I was looking to try and take the jersey anyway, so we will go in with the same tactic, we will try to win the stage and see what happens.”
Van Aert’s victory was another borderline feather for the mighty Jumbo-Visma team after he did so much to help prepare for Primoz Roglic’s stage win a day earlier on the climb to Orcieres-Merlette.
Zoglic is just three seconds behind Yeats with Alaphilippe now at 16.
Dan Martin finished 137th, 4’50 behind the leaders, while Nicolas Roche was among the last to finish, 7’04 further behind, which means he falls 22 places to 44th, but is still the Irish leader overall. .
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