Sam Bennett sprints to stage 7 success – Giro d’Italia
Giro d’Italia 2018
Stage 7
Ireland’s Sam Bennett opened up his Grand Tour account with a fine sprint victory over Italy’s Elia Viviani in Stage 7 of the Giro d’Italia in Praia a Mare.
In a fast and furious conclusion to the flat 159km stage along the Calabrian coast in the toe of Italy, Bora-Hansrohe’s Bennett turned the tables on hot favourite Viviani of Quick-Step Floors to take the biggest scalp of his career.
Bennett powered through from the slipstream of a tiring Viviani on the home straight to win by a wheel as Italy’s Niccolo Bonifacio (Bahrain Merida) showed his class by recovering from a late puncture to take third place.
Italy’s Sacha Modolo (EF Education First-Drapac) and Dutchmen Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) completed the top five as Britain’s Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) enjoyed a routine first day in pink to retain his 16-second lead over Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) in the general classification.
Bennett’s win was a first for Ireland in the Giro since a Stephen Roche brace in 1987 – the year of his unforgettable Triple Crown.
While unable to turn his brace of wins from Israel into a historic first-week hat-trick, Viviani consolidated his lead in the maglia ciclamino points classification after mopping up maximum points at the two intermediate sprints in the wake of a doomed three-man break that was reeled in with 15km remaining.
Davide Ballerini (Androni-Giocattoli), Markel Irizar (Trek-Segafredo) and Maxim Belkov (Katusha-Alpecin) were the three riders who formed the day’s break after a feisty opening 10km that saw the experienced Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) thwarted in an earlier attempt to break free.
Once away, the break quickly established a maximum lead of five minutes as the peloton seemed content to roll along on a recovery day after three tough stages in Sicily.
The Wilier-Triestina, Quick-Step Floors and EF Education First teams of sprinters Jakub Marezcko, Viviani and Modolo combined on the front to keep the gap in check as the riders skirted the scenic Tyrrhenian coast, rising only to a maximum 149 metres above sea level.
Ballerini and Belkov both took an intermediate sprint apiece while Viviani picked up maximum points on the front of the pack behind before a series of little mounds ahead of the business end of the stage.
Ballerini was the last of the escapees to be reeled in after a smarting Martin launched an audacious counter attack with 15km remaining.
Once Martin’s move came to nothing, Katusha-Alpecin tried their hand with separate moves from both Alex Dowsett and Mads Wurtz Schmidt. But the peloton was having nothing of it and the race was back together with 10km remaining.
If a bunch sprint was on the cards, then Bennett ensured that it didn’t go to script. Third twice in Israel, the 27-year-old made it a priority to stick in the back wheel of his big rival Viviani – even when the maglia ciclamino seemed to drop far back ahead of a chicane with 3km remaining.
On the front it was LottoNL-Jumbo and EF Education First who had power in numbers – but once Quick-Step led their man (and Bennett) towards the front, the tables turned.
Viviani kicked with the kind of speed that you would expect from a rider on the verge of a hat-trick of wins, but as 29-year-old faded in the final 50 metres, Bennett was really hitting his stride.
“I feel relieved,” said Bennett, who finished third in three sprints and runner-up once in his debut Giro last year.
“I’ve been so close so many times in the Giro. To get my timing right was key with so many fast sprinters here. And it’s really not easy to beat Viviani – he really knows what he’s doing.”
“But my time came. At one point I thought it would never come! I just had to get that wheel and have a bit of patience as well. I had to freewheel for a moment because I knew it was a little bit too early, and when the time was right I really took it on.”
The focus switches from the sprinters back to the GC contenders on the weekend with back-to-back summit finishes ahead of the second rest day.
Saturday 209km Stage 8 from Praia a Mare to Montevergine di Mercogliano concludes with a Cat.2 summit finish while Sunday’s 225km Stage 9 will be decided with a GC showdown on the fearsome Gran Sasso d’Italia where Yates’s pink jersey credentials will be tested to the full.
