Tour of Turkey: Sam Bennett wins stage 3

It was déja-vu at the Tour of Turkey as Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) claimed victory on stage 3, surviving the late climb and subsequent descent into Marmaris before sprinting to victory from a reduced peloton, exactly as he had done 12 months ago.

Bennett knew he'd be able to hang in on the late uncategorised climb, and when his chief rival, Alvaro Hodeg (Quick-Step Floors) was dropped, he was handed a relatively smooth path to victory.

A group of around 30 riders regrouped on the descent and two of Bennett’s teammates took control under the flamme rouge. Zdenek Stybar led out the sprint for Quick-Step’s plan B, stage 1 winner Max Richeze, but Bennett produced a commanding sprint to collect his second victory of the race.

Richeze initially had to jump onto Bennett’s wheel and although he made a decent effort to draw alongside he had to settle for second place. The final spot on the podium went to John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo).

“I thought it’d be harder on the climb but I was actually comfortable. They only went hard the last 500 metres and I could hang on for that,” said Bennett.

“The descent was pretty fast. A lot of guys came back when I thought maybe they wouldn’t. It was hard fight for the wheels then but my guys did a great job and looked after me all day, on the climb as well. I was on the Quick-Step train again in the last 500m. There was a slight hesitation at 220-230m to go and I decided to hit it instead of letting guys come over the top of me. At that moment I thought ‘maybe I’ve gone too long here’, but I was able to hold onto it so I’m delighted.”

Bennett’s second victory saw him extend his lead at the top of the general classification. He now leads by 10 seconds over Richeze. Degenkolb is in third and Jempy Drucker (BMC) in fourth, both at 22 seconds back.

How it unfolded

A breakaway of seven riders had formed in the opening kilometres of the 132km stage from Fethiye to Marmaris, containing Mads Wurtz Schmidt (Katusha-Alpecin) Fernando Barcelo (Euskadi-Murias), Benat Txoperena (Euskadi-Muraias), Aldemar Reyes (Manzana-Postobon), Kenneth Van Rooy (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Muhammed Atalay (Turkey), and Ferit Samli (Turkey).

They built a lead of three minutes as they tackled a second-category climb in the first hour of racing and then settled in for the flatter - if still undulating - route to the finale.

The break split in two in the final 25km but they were all caught at the foot of the final climb, an uncategorised but nevertheless sapping 2.5km incline on a wide highway. As the peloton thinned, Hodeg soon found himself in trouble, before any big attacks had come from those looking to split the peloton.

Diego Ulissi (UAE) was the first to make a move, prompting a big acceleration from Nicolas Roche (BMC) and a response from Alexey Lutsenko, whose Astana teammates had set the pace at the start of the climb. There were several splits as the climb turned into a sweeping descent but a sizeable group reformed and, crucially, Bennett was there and Hodeg wasn’t.

UAE were the most prominent on the run-in through town, before Bennett put two teammates on the front going into the final kilometre. Stybar and Richeze were positioned behind and they led out the sprint proper, but Bennett went just as Stybar pulled off and never looked back.

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