Sam Bennett, who had been sitting in Lanterne Rouge position in the Tour de France, has unfortunately had to abandon the race today. His Bora-Argon 18 team posted the news a short time ago. He’s not the only rider who has dropped out, as Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) has also been forced to abandon, with race radio reporting that he had been suffering with headaches.
It seems to have been a particularly aggressive day in the Tour today, with a number of other risers also struggling. World champion Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx), Nathan Haas (Cannondale-Garmin) and Jérôme Coppel (IAM) have also been forced out of the race.
Bennett had been struggling from the first few kilometres of today’s stage, having been dropped a couple of times but managing to rejoin the peloton the first few times.
He will obviously be disappointed with having to drop out, but should be encouraged to have made it so far in the race and nabbing a top-ten placing on one of the stages, despite his build-up coming into the race having been affected. The rider from Carrick-on-Suir had been ill in the weeks prior to the Tour.
Sorry to hear that Sam, hope you recover quickly and come back stronger.