Sam Bennett: First Tour de France stage win 'almost went too perfectly'

Tour de France 2020 107th Edition 10th stage Ile dOleron Ile de Re 1685 km 08092020 Sam Bennett IRL Deceuninck Quick Step photo Luca BettiniBettiniPhoto2020
Sam Bennett radios back to check if he's really won the stage (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

After years of battling against injuries, illness and non-selection for the Tour de France, it was perhaps only logical that Sam Bennett took his time coming around to the idea that he has finally nailed the first win of his career in the biggest bike race on the planet on Tuesday.

Even in this year's Tour, where he's clearly on top of his game, the Deceuninck-QuickStep racer had already hit the post three times, taking fourth, second and third in previous stages, before he powered across the finish line at Île de Ré ahead of Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe).

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Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.