Sam Bennett clocked up his second victory in four days, winning stage 4a of the Sibiu Tour on Sunday. The Bora-hansgrohe rider powered up the finishing ramp in Sibiu to finish comfortably ahead of Lotto Dstny riders Milan Menten, Michael Schwarzmann and the 81 other riders in the main bunch.
His team had been hoping to chase overall victory with Max Schachmann, who had started the day 29 second off the race lead. However the German rider crashed out.
“We had two scenarios in mind for today,” said Bennett. “We wanted to try something during the day to make a move in GC [general classification], but in case there was I sprint I was of course ready. It’s a pity that Max crashed. But Gampi [Patrick Gamper] delivered me perfectly on Menten’s wheel on the last kilometre. I passed him before the final turn because I knew it’s narrow then and only 150m to the line. I carried my speed well and took another win. It’s great to be back on track and my confidence is also coming back.”
Bennett further underlined his form by finishing second in the concluding stage 4b time trial on Sunday afternoon. He finished fractions of a second behind the Polish rider Marceli Boguslawski (Alpecin-Deceuninck Development Team) in the 3.3km solo test. He also dominated the green jersey competition for most consistent rider.
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Bennett was controversially passed over for selection by his team for the Tour de France and, in winning two stages, has shown that he would have been in fine shape for the Tour. He is in the final year of his contract and wants to collect as many victories as possible to ensure a good deal for 2024 and behind.
He is also pushing for selection for the Vuelta a España, a race where he won two stages last year prior to withdrawing due to Covid-19.
