Green to go as Sam Bennett safely passes the first alpine test

One less, two left. With his legs very swollen on the team bus to the start, only slightly less at the end, Sam Bennett comfortably survived the first of three Alpine stages, still at a safe distance in the green jersey.

Indeed, Bennett finished without losing or gaining anything to his Slovakian rival Peter Sagan, beyond handing the praise of a first stage victory to Sagan’s Bora-Hansgrohe team at this year’s Tour de France, after the Young German Lennard Kämna broke the front long breakaway away to claim the biggest victory of his career, by some distance.

There was also no concern about time limits, Bennett finished with an impressive appearance in the second main group, 27 minutes and 27 seconds less, along with fellow Irishman Dan Martin and defending champion Egan Bernal of Colombia. With the proper finish on the roof on Wednesday, this was perhaps the simplest than least easy survival day to come.

A day after saying that last Tuesday’s crash was starting to take some of the shine off his career, Nicolas Roche also managed to produce his best result of this year’s Tour by finishing eighth on the stage, his second top-10, two minutes and 47 seconds. behind Kämna. Roche now ranks 65th overall.

There was not much movement at the front of the race either, the yellow jersey group were also happy to take a more cautious approach on stage 16, 164km of constantly rolling terrain from La Tour du Pin to the end of the plateau at Villard -of-Lans. Primoz Roglic of Team Jumbo Visma finished in the first main group almost 17 minutes ago, and retains a 40-second lead over his Slovenian substitute Tadej Pogacar of UAE Emirates, who also finished 16:48 short.

“Yeah, it was good,” Bennett said, perhaps a little surprised at how comfortable the day had been, most of his Deceuninck-Quick Step teammates were company too. “I was expecting a difficult start, but in the end everything went well. I think I was just having a good day, and it was a good day to have a good day, and I just hope I didn’t use my legs too much for the next few days.

“Once the intermediate sprint is over, it’s about saving for the next day. If you go too far over your limit one day, you will leave the next day, especially on this year’s Tour, which is very difficult. So at this point everything is going to be planned, but we still have a lot of work to do. “

Neither Bennett nor Sagan were in the first dissident group to play intermediate in Saint-Joseph-de-Rivière, after 44.5km, where Italian Matteo Trentin added 20 points, plus another three at the finish, 14th best on the stage. That brings his 212 count a lot closer to Sagan’s 224, with Bennett still 45 points clear of his 269 points.

There were also good reasons for caution on the day, given the hell that awaits the entire peloton on stage 17: the 168 km from Grenoble to the Méribel ski resort, on the Col de la Loze, is by some distance the highest final of 2020. Tour, 2.3 km high to be exact, after 21.5 km of climb, with 20 percent gradients.

That combination of high altitude and steep incline will certainly put your legs to the test unlike any stage so far, this is the fifth highest mountain finish in Tour history, behind Galibier, Granon, Val Thorens and Izoard.

Assuming it makes it through the next two alpine stages, Bennett also admitted that the end of stage 19 on Friday at Champagnole may throw in some major green spots, and the Champs-Elysees certainly will.

“Yes, I think Friday will be a battle, a difficult day. But I think the way it goes, it will be a fight until Sunday. It would be nice to be able to enjoy Sunday, have it in the bag, but I don’t think that’s the case. I’m getting more optimistic, maybe because I felt so good on the bike today, but that’s just one day, I can’t get ahead of myself. Things can change. “

Kämna’s final solo getaway 10km from the finish was certainly impressive, given that his only previous professional victory of any kind was at the Critérium du Dauphiné last month, and he eliminated last year’s Giro d’Italia winner Richard Carapaz, of Ineos Grenadiers in the process, the Ecuadorian finishing 1:27 down. It means that the team formerly known as Sky has yet to win a Tour stage since Geraint Thomas at L’Alpe d’Huez in 2018.

There was some movement in the mountain classification, as B&B Hotels-Vital Concept climber Pierre Rolland advances to second place, tied on points with Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale).

Bennett also admitted that he still hadn’t looked at the exact scale of the Col de la Loze on Wednesday: “I haven’t looked yet. Look, in the past I went through the tour with a broken hand, I suffered like a dog, so if I can do it when I’m injured, I can do it when I’m fit.

“I’ve had such bad experiences on the Tour before, where I’ve suffered so much more, and if I could get over it then, I can get over it now. The challenge now is to overcome them after also chasing the intermediate sprints. We are still far away, but we are getting closer. It’s also a different way of racing, with the green jersey, I have to compete constantly, and that’s a process of attrition. “

It’s not like Sagan has given up the chase yet: “We’ll see what happens in the next few days. Sure, every point is good and we have to do our best, give our best. We have to do our best and I think I’m going to need the help of the whole team. We sure can do something in the next few days. We’ll see what that is. “

The view from the top of the Col de la Loze should certainly leave a clear picture on the yellow jersey.