Tour of Turkey: Bennett does the triple on stage 3

Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) made it a hat-trick at the Tour of Turkey, winning stage 3 on Thursday to maintain his 100 per cent strike so far at the late-season WorldTour race.

The Irishman had won convincingly from traditional bunch sprints on the opening two days, and en-route to Marmaris he managed to overcome a late climb to earn the right to sprint from a reduced peloton.

Trek-Segafredo’s Edward Theuns might have hoped the climb, and subsequent descent into Marmaris, would tip the balance in his favour after finishing third and second behind Bennett on the opening two stages, but the Belgian was once again unable to match the race leader’s speed in the home straight and had to settle for second place. UAE Team Emirates’ Simone Consonni finished third.

Bennett sat in second to last position in a group of 20 riders that emerged at the head of the race as the uncategorized 2.2-kilometre climb topped out with just over seven kilometres remaining. A chasing group of 20 clipped on part-way down the descent and, as the road flattened out in the final couple of kilometres, Bennett was able to rely on Shane Archbold and Gregor Muhlberger to take control and deliver him to the final few hundred metres, where his finishing speed spoke for itself.

“When the group split, I had the support of three of the guys again. It was a technical finish but I came out of the final bend in the perfect position," said Bennett. "I'm delighted with a third victory for the team, the sponsors and to reward the guys for their amazing work.”

The victory is Bennett’s ninth of the season, and his fourth in a row after he won the Munsterland Giro earlier this month before heading to Turkey.

Thanks to bonus seconds, Bennett extends his lead atop the overall standings to 14 seconds over Theuns, with Consonni third at 26 seconds. That should all change, however, on Friday’s uphill finish at Selcuk.

How it unfolded

The third stage saw riders head off from Fethiye in the direction of Mamaris, with a shorter route than yesterday at 128.6km. There was an early category-2 climb, but the major feature of the parcours would be the uncategorized incline with just under 10 kilometres remaining, followed by the swooping descent into town.

Two riders – Greg Daniel (Trek-Segafredo) and Ferit Can Samli (Turkish national team) – went up the road from the gun, and they were later joined by Thomas Deruette (WB Veranclassic) who was late to the party but managed to bridge across. Lincoln Silva of Soul Brasil attemped to do the same but to no avail.

Deruette took maximum points at the top of the climb but Maestri skipped clear of the peloton to mop of the remaining points and retain his red king of the mountains jersey.

The breakaway opened up a lead of five minutes after 50 kilometers and, with Theuns’ Trek team placing a rider in the break, it was down to Bennett’s Bora teammates to control the gap to the leading trio. It was down to just under a minute with 25 kilometres to go, whereupon Daniel attacked his breakaway companions and set off on a solo mission, arms tucked over his bars on the wide highways. He made it to the foot of the climb, and as he was caught by the peloton the attacks started to come.

Bardiani-CSF, Caja Rural and Androni-Sidermec sent riders off the front, while UAE seemed to have strength in numbers. No one succeeded in prying open a significant advantage, but the peloton was being stretched, and Bennett and co were in survival mode.

The climb crested with just over seven kilometres remaining, and Bennett was still in contention, sitting second to last place in the front group of 20 that had formed. Theuns was a couple of places in front of him. Another group of 20 clipped back on halfway down the descent, and it was just a question of how much the climb had taken out of the legs.

Not much out of Bennett’s, it transpired. His teammates took command through the tight left-hand bends and narrow streets of the final couple of kilometres and, unperturbed by a late flyer from Theuns' teammates Kiel Reijnan. the 26-year-old calmly finished the job.

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