Groenewegen, Bennett declassified for deviating in Critérium du Dauphiné sprint

Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) were declassified following a messy sprint finish of stage 3 of the Critérium du Dauphiné on Tuesday, each for deviating from their line in the closing 100 metres of the sprint won by Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma).

Bennett, who finished second, and Groenewegen in third were pushed to 33rd and 34th, respectively after officials determined they had violated rules that require sprinters to hold their line.

Matteo Trentin (UAE Emirates) and Milan Menten (Lotto-Dstny) were promoted to second and third places, respectively.

Bennett was second wheel heading into the final 200 metres of the 194.5 kilometre stage 3 to Le Coteau behind his lead-out man Danny van Poppel, with Matevž Govekar (Bahrain Victorious), Groenewegen and Laporte single file behind.

As Bennett shot to the right as he opened up the sprint, Govekar and Groenewegen tried to accelerate past on his right, while Laporte took the clearer, left-hand path.

Bennett, perhaps sensing the attempt to rush past on the right, shifted from the centre of the road to the right-hand barriers to block that avenue. Seeing the door closing on the right, Groenewegen body-checked Govekar out of the way to open the left line. The Slovenian narrowly avoided crashing and had to stop his sprint.

Laporte, meanwhile, blasted past unimpeded to claim his second stage victory of the Dauphiné and extend his race lead to 11 seconds ahead of Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quickstep), who missed out on the sprint because of a late puncture.