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A first stage win, the green jersey properly recovered and a special place in Tour de France history, it turns out that the only thing Sam Bennett ended up losing after stage 10 on the island of Île de Ré was a check on his emotions. . Why not?
It started just after Bennett crossed the line first, the Irish rider holding Peter Sagan on his right and Caleb Ewan on his left, possibly the three fastest riders in the world. Once he slowed down, Bennett immediately radioed his Deceuninck-QuickStep team car.
“Did I really win it? It was so close that I don’t trust it … “
It was close, only this time Bennett took his cigar. Because just when it seemed like the closer he got, the harder it was getting (he had finished second, third and fourth in the first week) Bennett made no mistake making the perfect sprint after the 170km flat run from Île d ‘ Oléron, hardly believing how perfect he had been. Voilà!
“I don’t think it hit me,” Bennett said, in the immediate post-race interview that is broadcast live to millions. “Because I forgot to throw my bike on the line, at the time, and I thought he [Ewan] It could have caught me I thought I might be in a torrent of tears, but I’m in shock. . . “
With that alone, Bennett was flooded with tears, and it was perfectly understandable. “You dream about it, you never think it will happen. Sorry, I don’t want to be a cry baby. . . “
Bennett, described on the Tour itinerary as a “golden opportunity” for sprinters, still needed to show every inch of his sprinting prowess in what was a tricky finish on the west coast of France, particularly given the exposed roads and the crosswinds. There was also plenty of roadside furniture to dodge, multiple roundabouts, and traffic islands adding to the obvious caution.
Only there was no question for Bennett this time around as he hit the front in the final 50 meters after the prefect lead of his Deceuninck-QuickStep teammate Michael Morkov, stopping his Slovak rival Sagan who came third. with Australia’s Ewan quickly closing second.
“It was really weird, because everything seemed to go too perfect at the end,” Bennett added later in the race press room, just a little more in control of his emotions. “I was almost in shock, 50 meters from the line. I couldn’t believe it happened, I thought maybe a person had passed me the line. And after the line, I just didn’t realize it.
“You wait so many years for this to happen, and to get this opportunity, it took a while for it to really sink. And it’s a relief, when you have so many great riders who have been through this team and delivered here, I needed to do this, come to the Tour de France and meet this team, after Patrick. [Lefevere, the team manager] He gave me this opportunity, this incredible opportunity. I really wanted to meet them, and also my teammates, who worked great all day. “
Irishman Nicolas Roche lies on the ground after crashing during stage 10. Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP via Getty Images
Starting the day seven points behind the green jersey leader, Sagan, and conceding another two in the intermediate sprint that occurred just 39km from the finish on the Châtelaillon-Plage seafront, Bennett took 50 points for the victory of stage, with Sagan de Bora-Hansgrohe. getting 20 for third place, and now he moves 21 points ahead in the green jersey race, 196 compared to Sagan’s 175.
There is still a long way to Paris for the week of Sunday, but with Wednesday’s stage probably the only flat before then, 29-year-old Bennett has a great chance to keep it up to the Champs-Elysees and complete the green. link to Carrick-on-Suir pilot Seán Kelly, the last Irishman to use it in Paris in 1989.
“It’s not that much of a coincidence,” he said of that link. “It seems you have all these guys with experience, interested in cycling culture, there is support to take them forward. You could go out for a Sunday ride in Carrick-on-Suir, and it’s a small town, but you could have 80 riders. It wouldn’t even be everyone, in the group. It’s such a great environment to bring the kids, the support, and the experience.
“And I am proud to represent Ireland, and here in my national championship jersey, in the largest cycling race in the world. I would love to take home the green jersey. But Peter has won it so many times for a reason, he is one of the best in this game. This is a confidence booster, but we will take it day by day.
“I always say that the three victories of my dreams would be San Remo, Champs Elysees and World Championships. I never really thought about the green jersey until I wore it, and it is something special. I think this year I would leave the Champs Elysees. . . Actually, I do not know. Look, whatever comes my way, I’d love to accept it. “
His special place in Tour history is twofold: just the sixth Irish rider in the race’s 107-year history to win a stage, Bennett becomes the second Irish rider, after Shay Elliott, to win a stage in the three Great Tours. having already won three in the 2018 Giro d’Italia and two stages in the 2019 Vuelta a España. In the long history of the three races, only 98 riders in total have achieved that feat.
The 170 km of Stage 10 from Île d’Oléron to Île de Ré was mostly flat as a pancake, only without much shelter, particularly over the 2.9 km bridge connecting La Rochelle to the island of Île de Ré, and the crosswinds sometimes made cycling treacherous. . Ask Nicolas Roche.
The Subweb team driver got caught in the first accident that occurred after 69 km and knocked down several drivers, ending the career of Sam Bewley from New Zealand, and although the peloton was back together with around 90 km still To go, Roche clearly suffered his injuries in the final 50km, finishing the stage in 156th, 10 minutes and 52 seconds behind Bennett, dropping to 76th overall. Dan Martin of Israel Start-Up Nation also struggled in the final third of the race and finished 130th in the second group who came five minutes and 25 seconds behind, falling two places to 64th.
Primoz Roglic of Team Jumbo-Visma, who on Sunday’s stage 9 in Laruns, in the southwest of the Pyrenees, became the first cyclist from Slovenia to win the yellow leader’s jersey, comfortably defended on this stage, and still He is 21 seconds ahead of defending champion Egan Bernal of Granaderos de Ineos.
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