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Sam Bennett came up terribly short in his bid to win a first stage of the Tour de France, overtaken on the line by Caleb Ewan of Lotto-Soudal at the end of the third day of racing.
After an uneventful stage, he was ready for a full sprint, with Bennett’s Deceuninck – Quick-Step working hard to keep his sprinter in position.
Bennett appeared to take the victory with 100 meters to go, but Australian Ewan pushed his way through the pack to cross the line three-quarters of a bike ahead of second-placed Tipperary native.
Bennett strives to be just the sixth Irish rider to win a Tour de France stage, after Shay Elliott, Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, Martin Earley and Dan Martin.
The Carrick-on-Suir native would join Elliott as the only Irish men to have stage victories on all three major tours, the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España.
Fourth on Saturday’s first leg, 29-year-old Bennett has suffered two narrow defeats in three days on the road.
🏆 🇦🇺 @CalebEwan 🏆# TDF2020 #TDFunited pic.twitter.com/ZLvooDfvRL
– Tour de France ™ (@LeTour) August 31, 2020
Ewan won three stages on the Tour last year and appears to be the fastest man in this year’s race. Julian Alaphilippe retained the yellow jersey.
After the race, Ewan said: “The last few days have not been very good for us, after we crashed on the first day and lost a couple of drivers. But everyone stayed motivated and we all knew that if everything went well, it could. win the sprint today.
“Today everyone gave 110% and it worked. In the last kilometer I was a little ahead, so I backed up a bit, which gave me a chance to rest my legs a bit and it worked perfectly at the end.”
Close but no cigar, great sprint by @CalebEwan . Congratulations friend 🤜🏻
– Sam Bennett (@Sammmy_Be) August 31, 2020
Bennett’s teammate Julian Alaphilippe kept the overall leader yellow jersey.
An all-French getaway with Anthony Perez, polka dot jersey holder Benoit Cosnefroy and Jerome Cousin held off by the group as the rain began to fall with 150 kilometers to go.
Cousin, who won a Paris-Nice stage at Sisteron in 2018, tried his luck alone with Pérez and Cosnefroy being devoured by the peloton despite the slow pace.
Perez then quit with a broken rib and possible lung collapse after crashing into his team’s car, his Cofidis team said.
Cofidis said the 29-year-old had been taken to the hospital for more checks.
Cousin was slowed with 16 kilometers left by Alaphilippe’s Deceuninck Quick Step-controlled peloton as the sprinter teams began to prepare for the group sprint.
In form Wout van Aert, one of Primoz Roglic’s teammates, crashed about six kilometers from the line, but the champion Milan-San Remo finished the stage.
Tuesday’s fourth stage is a 160.5-kilometer effort from Sisteron to Orcieres-Merlette for the first finish at the top of the race, with Britain’s Adam Yates, following Alaphilippe for four seconds overall, staring at the yellow jersey. .
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