After declaring the last three days as mainly an exercise in “strength and conditioning”, Sam Bennett still rode with impressive intent along the 203km stage 6 of Paris-Nice towards the hilltop finish at Biot, before riding himself to a standstill with just 700 metres remaining.
At that point, the last 1.5km a pure and properly testing climb, Bennett was still riding hard behind his Deceuninck-QuickStep team-mates, poised it seemed to try for a third outright stage win, despite the gradient and twisty terrain – before his legs suddenly and abruptly said no thanks.
With that Bennett dropped right back off the leaders, as he well might, a quick shake of his head acknowledging the fact he’d given his all. Not long afterwards Primoz Roglic outsprinted Christophe Laporte in the final race for the line, the Slovenian rider taking his second stage win and extending his overall race lead to 41 seconds. Bennett finished two minutes and nine seconds down.
The stage win also puts Roglic of team Jumbo-Visma back in the outright lead of the points classification, with 42 points to Bennett’s 36, though the Irish rider has likewise declared his intention not to try to win that classification over the closing days, as the focus of mind and body already shifts towards next Saturday’s Milan-San Remo, Bennett making no secret of his desire to add that to his list of wins.
The effort on stage 6 will surely stand to him, the two remaining stages on Saturday and Sunday cut short due the lockdown situation in Nice.
Two years ago, when the stage finished in Brignoles, Bennett soloed his way to victory, one of his two stage wins in the 2019 Paris-Nice. This was a different prospect, the 203km from Brignoles to Biot, nestled in the heart of the French Riviera, including five categorised climbs. A six-man break forged clear early on, but were brought back with 20km to go.
Bennett will still wear green on Saturday; stage 7 is now a 119.2-km route between Le Broc and the resort of La Colmiane, Sunday’s final stage 8 moved to Le Plan Du Var, for a 92.7 km ride to Levens.
Next Saturday’s Milano-San Remo, at 298 km the longest professional one-day race in modern cycling, is also the first of the spring Monuments. Seán Kelly remains the only Irish winner, back in 1986 and 1992.
