Sam Bennett fights back with 12th place finish on stage 14

Sam Bennett has begun his fight back from a bad crash earlier in the Tour de France, notching a very solid 12th on stage 14 of the race on Saturday.

Speaking to the Irish Times at the Tour the Irish Bora Argon 18 rider previously said that his stage one crash had left him with both physical injuries and also a lot of nervousness. However he was nevertheless able to notch up a strong performance into Villars les Dombes.

Speaking after the stage, he said that taking the result took a lot of courage.

“I tried to be brave in the sprint but it was one of the hardest things I ever had to do in cycling, to go back in a bunch sprint like that after crashing,” he stated. “I think mentally it was really, really difficult. And when I got one or two bumps, I tipped the brakes and lost all my speed. That cost me five or six places.”

Bennett’s stage one crash left him with hand injuries that have prevented him from being able to brake properly. In the ultra-nervous and aggressive Tour peloton, that is a clear handicap and has given him many scares in the days since.

He’s still turning things around but his stage result is an important step.

“It was confidence that stopped me from getting a result today,” he said. “It will be easy for people to say you need to be more aggressive, blah blah blah, but honestly, as nervous as I am, I think I did well today to be back. I think it is stepping stone first to be back in the bunch sprint and then to have confidence to push and shove a little bit more.”

Bennett will have another chance on Monday's stage to Berne in Switzerland. Before then, he and fellow Irishman Dan Martin will face another tough mountain stage on Sunday. Martin finished in the bunch on Saturday, rolling in 76th, and remains ninth overall.

He is five minutes and three seconds behind race leader and defending champion Chris Froome (Sky), but is less than two minutes off fifth place overall. If he can climb as he did earlier in the race, moving up the general classification seems quite possible.