Bennati wins the sprint in St-Mars-la-Jaille

Daniele Bennati has won his first race of the year in St-Mars-la-Jaille at the end of stage 1 of the Circuit de la Sarthe. He preceded Frenchmen Samuel Dumoulin and Nacer Bouhanni.

"I knew that I had a good chance to win here today as I supposedly was the best sprinter in this race," Bennati said at the finish. He was kind of relieved to finally win after finishing second on five occasions since the beginning of the year, twice at the Tour of Qatar, twice at the Tour of Oman and at Gent-Wevelgem last week.

"Second at Gent-Wevelgem is an important result but it was a big disappointment," Bennati said. "Tom Boonen wasn't stronger than me that day. But I lost his wheel when Ian Stannard changed his lane. It's a pity because I could have won."

Stage 1 of the Circuit de la Sarthe went exactly as he wanted. "My team rode at the front of the bunch all day," he said. Leopard-Trek didn't give more than 6:15 advantage to Thierry Hupond (Skil-Shimano) and Rubio Chavez (Colombia-ès-Passion) who broke away after 6km of racing.

As soon as they got caught at km 89, Thomas Voeckler tried to initiate a breakaway but realized after five kilometres that he was too closely marked. At kilometre 107, local attacker Jonathan Thiré (BigMat-Auber 93) went solo and reached a maximum lead of 3:30 at km 123 before getting caught in the last ten kilometres.

"Davide Vigano led me out," Bennati described. "I looked at staying in the first positions of the bunch. I took the last curve in third position and opened the sprint with 250 metres to go. Let's hope this is the first of a long series of wins."

A double stage winner of the Volta Catalunya, Dumoulin came second and Bouhanni third. "Even though I knew that Bennati was the strongest sprinter here, I didn't think that I'd be beaten for sure," Bouhanni, a neo pro from FDJ said. "Pierrick Fedrigo and Anthony Geslin positioned me well."

Bennati didn't rule out riding the Circuit de la Sarthe for the overall win as well. "The time trial tomorrow isn't too long for me (6.8km)," he said. "It will all depend on how much I lose to the time trial specialists."

David Millar and David Zabriskie (Garmin-Cervélo), Anthony Roux (FDJ), Laszlo Bodrogi (Team Type 1), Svein Tuft (Spidertech), Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur-Sojasun) and Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) might not gain more than ten seconds on the flat circuit of Angers over Bennati who was 7th in the final time trial of the 2008 Giro d'Italia in Milan.

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