Sam Bennett races to second Paris-Nice stage win

by



[ad_1]

Sam Bennett raced to his second stage victory of the 2021 Paris-Nice race to regain his lead at the top of the points standings.

The Carrick-on-Suir man has been wearing the green jersey since winning the first stage of the Carrera al Sol on Sunday (Bennett started second behind Primoz Roglic in the points standings today, but retained the jersey as the Slovenian wore yellow) and made good on his promise earlier this week to aim for stage five after yesterday’s mountainous feats.

The 200km course between Vienne and Bollene was always intended for sprinters and Deceuninck-Quick-Step led his sprinter down the finish straight and went ahead to claim victory ahead of Nacer Bouhanni and Pascal Ackerman of Bora-Hansgrohe.

The 30-year-old paid tribute to the work of his teammates to lay the foundations for victory, but expressed frustration with the tactics employed by some of the riders towards the commercial end of the race.

“The guys were amazing today,” he said. “I was suffering in the last kilometers. I don’t know what it is, but people won’t let me follow my own train here. It’s frustrating.

“I’m not allowed to follow my own wheel and the guys are coming in and it seems like they just want to interrupt our sprints rather than focus on their own running. We don’t look at anyone else, I don’t know why they’re doing it.” so obsessed with us.

“I didn’t think I would take it to the line. I’m proud that I was able to finish.”

The 15 points earned today bring him back to the top of the points standings with 36 points, nine ahead of Roglic.

Roglic retains the overall leader’s yellow jersey with a 31-second lead over Maximilian Schachmann.

The race will not have its traditional finish on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais this year because regional authorities said it would have to avoid the city, which will be closed on Saturday and Sunday due to the coronavirus pandemic.



[ad_2]