Sam Bennett came up short today at the finish of Minerva Classic Brugge-De Panne in Belgium, after he lost his lead-out man. He then appeared to run into some traffic as he tried to find a way through to the front. However, he expressed confidence his form would come good soon.
In the end, the 207.9km race – which Bennett won last year – was won by Tim Merlier (Alpecin Fenix) in a photo finish form Dylan Groenewegen (BikeExchange-Jayco). Nacer Bouhanni (Arkea Samsic) was 3rd.
Bennett ended the race in 17th, after a chaotic finish with lots of riders in contention, and after his team mates had done Trojan work on the front to keep the pace high and chase down the early breakaway. Ryan Mullen could be seen pulling Bennett into position in the final 5-10km before finishing 40th, and in the bunch, while Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) was 126th at 1:29.
“I’m really proud of how the we raced today as a team, in the end it was a question of my condition and my legs. We started pulling in the peloton pretty early and the guys did a great job for me,” Bennett said.
“In the final it was super fast and hard, I’m still missing the final punch a bit to close gaps and accelerate again and again. Within the last kilometer there was a crash that caused a bit of chaos and I lost the wheel of Danny van Poppel who rode a fantastic finale for me.
“I’m sure a better result would have been possible on the wheel of Danny. We have some tough weeks behind us but when we keep riding like this results will click rather sooner than later.”
While Bora-hansgrohe’s Bennett made no excuses after the finish, a crash by Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) with 1.5km to go didn’t help the Irishman’s cause. Bennett was about 20 riders back from the front at the time and Ackermann was just ahead of him and to his left as he fell.
While the German rider didn’t bring anyone else down with him, his fall caused a scatter in the bunch, which resulted in a small gap opening to the lead riders. And though the gap was closed instantly, it meant Bennett had a little more to do that he would have wanted just before the big finish.
He became detached from his lead-out man, Van Poppel, and then appeared to jump onto the back wheel of Mark Cavendish, hoping the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl lead-out may help him.
However, the Manxman didn’t figure in the sprint and then Bennett ran into a packed group of riders all sprinting for victory ahead of him. When he realised there was no way through for him, he sat up with about 150 metres to go.
