Sam Bennett takes another stage in Tour of Slovenia

Sam Bennett ended the Tour of Slovenia as he started it: standing on the podium as a stage winner. Three days after winning stage one, he was first to the line again on Sunday. The Carrick on Suir rider outsprinted 30-time Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data) to the finish in Novo Mesto, netting his third UCI-ranked victory of the year.

The success came despite his Bora-hansgrohe team focusing on ensuring overnight leader Rafal Majka took the final overall victory.

“We worked the whole day for the jersey of Rafa, therefore I didn’t have a lot of guys for the sprint today,” said Bennett. “But Rudi [Selig] brought us up in the perfect moment. We took the outside on the penultimate corner, to be inside on the last one. On the bridge, we were in front and I did let a little gap to come with full speed out of his slipstream on the last 200m. We can be very proud of the team this week, it was a perfect performance from all of us.”

Bennett also won the points classification. He rode the Giro d’Italia in May, netting four top-three stage finishes. However, despite his strong form he is not set to ride this year’s Tour de France; instead, world champion Peter Sagan will lead the team in the sprints there. It is possible that Bennett will compete in the Vuelta a España in August and September.