SAM BENNETT CEMENTED his place among Ireland’s cycling greats with a thrilling sprint finish to win today’s stage at the Tour de France.
Bennett pipped Caleb Ewan in a frantic final dash to the line in Île de Ré, winning his first-ever stage in the race and leapfrogging Peter Sagan to regain the green jersey as points classification leader.
The Carrick-on-Suir rider becomes just the sixth Irish cyclist to win a stage at the Tour de France, adding his name to the list of Shay Elliott, Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, Martin Earley and Dan Martin.
“You dream of it and you never think it will happen, and it does, and it did,” a stunned Bennett told Eurosport as he was overcome with emotion in his post-race interview.
What a moment for @Sammmy_Be!
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) September 8, 2020
He times his finish to perfection to claim a first Tour stage win and go back into green.
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Bennett — who also finished third in the intermediate sprint earlier in the day — tops the green jersey race with 196 points, 21 ahead of Sagan who is seeking to win the title for an unprecedented eighth time.
The win also sees 29-year-old Bennett complete his Grand Tour hattrick following his stage victories at the Giro d’Italia in 2018 and last season’s Vuelta a España.
Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma) retains the race leader’s yellow jersey, 21 seconds ahead of Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers).
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Did it on purpose the dirty pirate. Should be banned retrospectively.
Haven’t seen a stamp like that since Matt the Millers last week
Dirty nasty little man, only sad part is no chance of a little pay back, that yoke will rarely b on the same pitch as Messi again , and wouldn’t get into the same nightclubs , so that’s one to just suck up and move on .
Bad tackle
poor stamp in fairness but Enrique surely knows there’s almost twice the number of officials in NFL than soccer and is refereed and scrutinised much more intensely and fairly by each of them.
Ya just dont stamp on messi