Sam Bennett (BORA hansgrohe) took back-to-back stage wins at the Tour of Turkey today in Marmaris. The Irishman took the win in a sprint finish ahead of Maximiliano Richeze (Quick Step Floors) and John Degenkolb (Trek Segafredo).
Today’s 137-kilometre took the riders from Fethiye to Marmaris, and a break of seven riders formed early on. Muhammed Atalay (Turkey), Ferit Samli (Turkey), Fernando Barcelo (Euskadi-Murias), Benat Txoperena (Euskadi-Muraias), Mads Wurtz Schmidt (Katusha-Alpecin) Aldemar Reyes (Manzana-Postobon), and Kenneth Van Rooy (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) gained a maximum lead of three minutes before being reeled in at the start of the last climb.
The peloton splintered on the final climb with Diego Ulissi (UAE) and Nicolas Roche (BMC) amongst the riders trying to go clear but a large group reformed with Bennett amongst the front riders.
In the tricky and fast finale, which Bennett knew from last year having taken the win, the Irish sprinter navigated his way to the front to emerge victorious ahead of Richeze and Degenkolb. He has now extended his overall lead to 10″ ahead of Richeze.
Sam Bennett – “I thought it would be harder on the climb but I was actually comfortable. They only went hard the last 500 metres and I could hang on for that. The descent was pretty fast. A lot of guys came back when I thought maybe they wouldn’t. It was a hard fight for the wheels then, but my guys did a great job and looked after me all day, on the climb as well.
“I was on the Quick-Step train again in the last 500m. There was a slight hesitation at 220-230m to go and I decided to hit it instead of letting guys come over the top of me. At that moment I thought maybe I’ve gone too long here, but I was able to hold onto it so I’m delighted.”
Enrico Poitschke, BORA – hansgrohe Sports Director – “What should I say, we knew that Sam and all the other guys are more than motivated to defend our leader jersey, and they did an fantastic job again. Juraj, Matteo, Maciej and Alex protected Sam the whole day and, on the climbs, Jay and Lukas stayed with Sam. The team worked once again together and Sam finished it off with another masterful sprint.”
