Bayern Rundfahrt: Bennett wins stage 1 in Waldsassen

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Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon 18) won the opening stage of the Bayern Rundfahrt in Waldsassen on Wednesday. The Irishman relied on a well-timed lead-out from his teammates in order to take the bunch sprint ahead of Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) and John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin). 

Bennett moved into the early race lead by three seconds ahead of both Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) and Jonas Koch (Rad-net-Ros).

Bennett’s team director Enrico Poitschke said following the stage, ”This is a perfect start. The team implemented the tactics quite impressively. The guys delivered an optimal sprint lead-out that Sam completed with winning the stage. The win was our target and if you hit it you can be very satisfied. We put quite some pressure on ourselves today. We wanted to take responsibility and not leave anything to chance here. We started the race with this idea in our minds and the team withstood the pressure. We couldn't wish for a better start at our home race.”

The 221.3km stage began in Regensburg where an early move of six riders set off. The breakaway included Koch and Vorganov, along with Rodo Torres (Colombia), Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka) and Johannes Weber ( Struttgart), but it started to fall a part as the terrain became more challenging. However, they managed to hold a minute gap into the last 20 kilometres.

As the breakaway riders were reeled back into the fold, a series of counter attacks took place but none were able to hold off a charging peloton in pursuit of a bunch sprint.

The Bayern Rundfahrt will continue with the second stage on Thursday, a 179km race from Waldsassen to Selb.

Cult Energy Pro Cycling’s Fabian Wegmann added that the opener was a long stage but, “not the hardest terrain so the more selective stages are still to come. The sprinter teams had their way in spite of a late attack from Alex Kirsch who was caught a few kilometers from the finish line. It was a rather dangerous finale with steep descent before the road took a sharp turn to a short uphill finish. I think tomorrow's stage will be harder and might stir up the peloton a bit more than today."

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