Ireland’s Sam Bennett won today’s fifth stage of the Paris-Nice race after a sensational finish to a flat stage in Bollene.
Much like at the UAE Tour two weeks ago, Bennett was put in a great position by his Deceuninck-QuickStep teammates, and he completed the job with a brilliant final 300m which allowed him to comfortably see out the stage win.
Bennett already held the Green Jersey of most consistent finisher and is in pole position to hold on to it for the remainder of the race.
While the Irishman heaped praise on his fellow team members, Bennett was unhappy with how opposition teams tried to disrupt his finish.
He said: “The guys were incredible today, as I was suffering in the last 2km.
“I don’t know what it is, but people won’t let me follow my own train here. It’s frustrating in the final. I got back on just before the roundabout. It was a very hard final. I didn’t think I’d hold it to the final, but the guys did an incredible job and I’m just proud to finish it off.
“For some reason I’m not let follow my own (team’s) wheel. Guys are just coming in, it kind of seems like they just want to disrupt our sprint instead of concentrating on their own race. We don’t look at anybody else, but I don’t know why they have such a fixation on us.”