It is a second stage success for the Carrick-on-Suir sprinter, who also won yesterday, and gives his team two stage victories in the first week of the final Grand Tour of the season.

Stage 3, which was the final stage in the Netherlands, was again a showdown between the fast men. They duly contested the sprint on a circuit around Breda on the longest stage of this year’s Vuelta, at 193.5 km in length.

Sam Bennett started the stage in the green points jersey and hoped to be able to defend it and take another stage win.

With his Bora-Hansgrohe team supporting him all day, in the end, Danny van Poppel was the last man to set his teammate up perfectly on the left hand side of the road, ahead of the bunch sprint.

The Irish fast man was able to hold his own in a hectic tussle at the front and ultimately take the win.

The team from Raubling thereby took its second stage victory in a row and extended its lead in the points classification.

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In a tight finish the Bora-Hansgrohe rider outsprinted Mads Pedersen of Trek-Segafredo and Tim Merlier from Aplecin-Deceuninck in the days 175.1 kilometre flat stage from ‘s-Hertogenbosch to Utrecht in the Netherlands.

With an excellent leadout from his Bora-Hansgrohe team, the Irish rider was well placed nearing the finish of the day’s action.

Danny van Poppel launched Bennett with the Carrick-on-Suir cyclist able to pull alongside the Pedersen before crossing the line first to win Saturday’s stage.

Merlier finished third with Jumbo-Visma’s Mike Teunissen coming home fourth and taking the race leader’s red jersey as a result.

“To win here is really nice,” an ecstatic Bennett admitted. “I knew I could win again at this race, but it was just a matter of time. Huge thanks to my teammates, who really did a strong job for me today, especially Danny (van Poppel) who rode a really fantastic lead-out. I’m very proud that I was able to reward all their hard work with the win.”

Today’s stage win was a second victory of the year for Bennett and his first in a Grand Tour since 2020.

Bora-Hansgrohe’s Sports Director Bernie Eisel felt Bennett’s stage 2 success was a perfect start to La Vuelta for his team, stating:

“It was extremely important for Sam and for the whole team to have such a good start to the Vuelta, and of course it really gives us a boost for the next few days. So, all in all, perfect teamwork was crowned with an incredibly strong sprint win today.”

Bennett now leads the points classification on 67 points and will wear the green jersey on Sunday.

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Dunbar took part in the 2011 European Youth Olympics in Trabzon, Turkey so he feels comfortable in an Olympic setting.

The 24-year-old Irishman is excited to represented Ireland at the Olympics, even if he believes there are bigger events on the professional cycling calendar.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly proud to represent Ireland in the Olympics and I always love representing my country, it’s something that means a lot to me,” said Dunbar.

“But as I said, I think in terms of cycling itself, it’s something that’s you don’t think of like I’m not thinking [of Paris] in three years time, you know, I’m thinking ‘Oh next year I’d love to do the tour’ or ‘I’d love to do the Giro’ or something like that.”

Dunbar is the youngest rider of the trio to represent Ireland on Saturday and will follow in the footsteps of Ireland’s first-ever Olympic medalist, Pat O’Callaghan – the gold medal winner was also from Banteer.

The Olympian was only 10 when a statue of O’Callaghan was erected in his hometown and always heard about the hammer throw champion growing up.

He has also been interested in rugby from a young age and used to get the same Munster players’ autographs every week at Musgrave Park.

“I probably watch more rugby than I do cycling being honest.”

The road cyclist comes into the Olympics off the back of a strong performance at the Tour de Suisse, where he won the prize of Best Youth Cyclist after helping INEOS Grenadiers teammate Richard Carapaz to the Yellow jersey.

His performances from Frauenfeld to Andermatt came several months after a crash at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali.

He was slow to come back from the crash but felt confident heading into the race in Switzerland.

“I trained super good for two and a half weeks, I got called into Suisse, probably rode the best race my life there.”

The young cyclist is part of the Olympic cycling team ahead of Sam Bennett, who would have got in had the selection process been based on rankings.

However, Dunbar is a specialist when it comes to hills and with the course featuring 4,800m worth of climbing to do, the Banteer man is a good selection for the job.

The cyclist is expecting a different kind of race compared to the tours on the cycling calendar – the race being for one day only is a clear example of the differences it has.

From speaking to Nico Roche and his 2008 Olympics teammate Philip Deignan, Dunbar has concluded that the race relies more on individual confidence and awareness rather than a set strategy.

“I think it’s a race where you have to go in open-minded and see what happens. Just be attentive. And yeah, if you feel good, at a certain point, just go for it, you know?”

To see the Olympic schedule for Irish athletes on Saturday, July 24th, click here.

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In a bunch sprint, the Tour de France green jersey winner of 2020 claimed the 55^th professional win of his career.

The opening day of the Volta ao Algarve was a 189.5 kilometre stage from Lagos to Portimão. It wasn’t as straightforward as the profile suggested, however.

A number of crashes throughout the day meant a lot of riders were absent for the finale. Among them were Shane Archbold and Fabio Jakobsen, who were involved in a small incident with four kilometres remaining. Fortunately neither suffered any serious injury.

Thought the finale was very hectic, Deceuninck – Quick-Step team did their job to perfection. Bennett’s team took up the pace-setting ahead of the flamme rouge and delivered an impeccable piloting masterclass.

Ireland’s top cyclist kicked for home with 125 metres to the line when teammate Michael Mørkøv peeled off the front.

Sixth win for Bennett this season

For the sixth time this season Bennett raised his arms in celebration. He beat Danny Van Poppel (Intermarche-Wanty Gobert) and Jon Aberasturi (Caja Rural) by more than a bike length.

It was a first win for Bennett in Portugal on his first racing visit to the Volta ao Algarve.

“The legs felt good, but there were a lot of crashes and we spent a lot of energy coming back to the front and keeping our position,” explained Sam Bennett post-race.”

“I didn’t know how my condition was going to be after a month with no racing and didn’t expect it to be that hard, but I’m happy I could finish it off and I got the yellow jersey as a bonus”, the Irish cyclist added as he became the fifth different Deceuninck – Quick-Step rider in six years to claim the opening stage of the race.

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The Tour de France green jersey holder was perfectly led out by his Deceuninck- Quick-Step team-mate Michael Morkov to snatch his third win of the season after two stages of the UAE Tour.

The Irishman overpowered France’s Arnaud Demare and former world champion Mads Pedersen in a 166-km first stage around Saint-Cyr-l’École, fatal to 2013 and 2015 winner Richie Porte, who crashed with 33 km to go and was forced out on the first day.

On paper, the 165.8km opening day should have been a quiet one, but the attackers had other plans. As  a consequence they attacked in waves inside the last 40 kilometres, forcing the peloton to up the tempo. The peloton began a frantic chase that stretched out the bunch and put many riders in the red.

On the hectic uphill finish, Sam Bennett stayed in a perfect position until the last 200 metres, when he shot out of the pack and sprinted to victory with his hands on the top of his brake levers, putting several bike lengths between him and his opponents.

It was the fourth win of the Carrick-on-Suir native in the “Race to the Sun”, after the ones of 2017 and 2019, one that brought him also two jerseys, yellow and green.

“Coming into the race I didn’t know how my shape would be, because racing here is different from the UAE,” Sam Bennett said. “Here it’s full gas the entire day and today it was another test to see where the legs were. We were a bit blocked in the last kilometres and could come to the front only with two kilometres to go, which was thanks to Michael, who always stays calm and knows what he has to do. I was confident and I just waited for the right moment to go and all I can say is that I’m happy with the kick I had and my victory.”

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The popularity of Gaelic Games and the achievements of Dublin in winning six in-a-row are all reflected in the most recent TSSI survey.

The TSSI is a comprehensive 1,000 person nationally representative survey with quotas imposed across gender, region, age and social class. The research was carried out by Teneo’s Sports and Sponsorship team and iReach. It examines the Irish general public’s attitudes towards sport and their sporting heroes. This is the view of the general public and not a survey of sports fans. It is the eleventh year of the TSSI and the research was carried out between January 14-19.

Most Admired Sports Star

Katie Taylor makes it a four in-a-row of wins in Ireland’s most Admired Sport Star category. It’s the sixth time in eight years that she has topped this particular poll. The only other winners in that time are the now-retired former Ireland rugby captain Paul O’Connell in 2015 and MMA fighter Conor McGregor in 2016.

Taylor is a clear winner with a 30% the votes, well ahead of second placed Ireland rugby captain Jonathan Sexton (6%). Shane Lowry placed third on 5%, with Joe Canning, Pádraig Harrington, Conor Murray and Sam Bennett all sharing fourth spot with 4%

Team of the Year

This was a closely fought contest between two of the finest teams of the modern era in Gaelic Games. Dublin’s six in-a-row winning footballers just edged out Limerick’s All-Ireland winning hurlers.

The Dubs got 24% of the vote – only one percent ahead of Limerick on 23%. In 2020, Leinster Rugby weren’t far off the top two and finished in third place on 20% of the vote thanks to their unbeaten Pro14 season. Dublin’s ladies footballers came fourth with 12% after they made it an All-Ireland four in-a-row. Dundalk FC fill out the top five with 10% of the vote having made this season’s Europa League group stage.

Favourite Sport

The big three of Gaelic Games, rugby and soccer continue to dominate in the favourite sport category. Gaelic Games grew in popularity in 2020 and remain Favourite Sport for the third year on the bounce. Soccer had been the nation’s number one for eight years in succession from 2010, when the TSSI research was first carried out.

Gaelic Games (football, ladies, hurling and camogie) won 24% support, ahead of soccer (men and women’s) on 14%. Following a decade of great on-field success, rugby (men’s and women’s) remains popular on 13%.

Tennis and cycling both enjoy healthy followings in Ireland and were voted joint-third on 5%, just ahead of athletics and golf on 3%.

When it comes to sport that people “like”, but that isn’t necessarily their favourite sport, tennis (18%) golf (15%), athletics (13%), horse racing (13%) and boxing (12%) all poll strongly.

Most Memorable Sporting Moment

Katie Taylor fought a second war with title challenger Delfine Persoon last August. The Irish public voted the moment her hand was raised in victory as the most memorable sporting moment of 2020.

This moment picked up 32% of the public vote. Cyclist Sam Bennett’s sprint victory on the final stage of the Tour de France in Paris was second on 15%.

Tipperary’s historic Munster Senior Football Championship win over Cork picked up 11% of the vote for third place.

Looking ahead to 2021

The Irish sporting public is hoping for a packed sporting calendar in 2021. The delayed Tokyo Olympic Games is the event the nation is most looking forward to, with 20% of the votes. Second in the running is the forthcoming Six Nations, which polled 17%.

Next on the list are the All-Ireland Senior Hurling (14%) and All-Ireland Senior Football Championships (11%). Combined, all four Gaelic games’ All-Ireland championships (including camogie on 3% and ladies football on 2%) gather 30% of the vote.

Rounding out the top five is Euro 2020, another major competition carried over from last year, on 10%.

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Bennett, winner of the green jersey in this year’s Tour de France, beat Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen and Italy’s Jakub Marecszo in a sprint finish to narrowly take the stage win at the end of the 191.7 kilometres.

Today’s success is Bennett’s third Vuelta stage win and his sixth in a Grand Tour.

UAE Team Emirates and Bora-Hansgrohe went to the front of the peloton late on, before Philipsen moved clear 200 metres from the finish.

However, Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s Bennett went on the Belgian’s wheel and won by a bike length to secure his first win at this year’s La Vuelta.

“It was so fast on the run-in, I was a bit nervous,” said the winning Deceuninck-Quick-Step rider.

“I had the power but he (Philipsen) was so explosive out of the corner and I didn’t know if I would catch him” the 30-year-old explained.

“I found the speed I needed, and in the end, I managed to overtake him and take my first win since Champs-Élysées, which feels amazing”, a delighted Bennett said after picking up Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s 39th victory of the year.

Defending champion Primoz Roglic remains in the overall lead, five seconds ahead of Ireland’s Dan Martin with Richard Carapaz in third.

Stage four result
1. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step)
2. Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates)
3. Jakub Mareczko (ICCC)

General classification after stage four
1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) 16hrs 30mins 53secs
2. Daniel Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) +5secs
3. Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) +13secs

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The Carrick-On-Suir man, who won his first Tour de France stage yesterday, was bidding to become the first Irish cyclist to win consecutive stages in the world’s most famous cycle race, and was hoping to emulate his fellow ‘Carrick’ man, Seán Kelly, who the first of his five Tour de France stages in Poitiers in 1978.

Wednesday’s 167.5 kilometres stage from Châtelaillon-Plage went to Australian Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal), who was taking his second stage in this year’s event, with Peter Sagan second across the line and Bennett third.

When officials reviewed the race finish, Sagan was deemed to have shoved Jumbo-Visma sprinter Wout van Aert in the closing metres and was relegated to 85^th place, last in the finishing bunch sprint.

This meant Bennett was promoted to second, earning him more green jersey points, to add to the points he claimed earlier in the day when taking second behind breakaway leader Matthieu Ladagnous at the intermediate sprint.

“I don’t really know what happened it was so hectic,” admitted Bennett. “It (the final sprint) was hard to make the switch from following my teammate to going alone. I found myself too far forward too early and then I was trying to drift back and it was a bit late to drift back. Then they came at speed – it was just a complete mess. I just tried to limit my losses and get the best result I could.”

The Irish rider is now on 234 points, 68 points ahead of seven-time points’ classification winner Sagan on 175, with Frenchman Bryan Coquard third on 157.

Race leader Primoz Roglic from Slovenia maintains his lead over the defending Tour champion Egan Bernal.

Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche finished in 133rd and 138^th respectively on today’s stage, with Martin maintaining his position as the leading Irish rider in this year’s race. The Israel Start-Up Nation rider is 64^th on the general classification, with Roche 75^th and Tuesday’s stage winner Bennett 139^th, almost two-and-a-half hours behind the yellow jersey wearer.

Stage 11 result

1. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) 4hrs 00mins 01secs
2. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) same time.
3. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) same time.

General classification after stage 11

1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) 46hrs 15mins 24secs.
2. Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) + 21secs.
3. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) + 28secs.

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The Carrick-On-Suir rider, who became the sixth Irishman to win a stage in the Grande Boucle, held off Australian Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) to take victory in Ile de Re Saint-Martin-de-Re.

Twenty-nine-year-old Bennett’s win gave his Belgian Deceuninck – Quick-Step team a second stage win at this year’s Tour following the victory of Julian Alaphilippe on stage 2.

Bennett’s victory means he has won a stage at all three of cycling’s Grand Tours, having taken three at the Giro d’Italia in 2018 and two at the Vuelta a Espana in 2019, both for his former team, Bora-Hansgrohe.

Bennett who has shown great consistency since the beginning of this year’s Tour, with second, third and fourth place finishes during the opening week of the race, said of his first Tour de France stage win:

“You dream of it and never think it will happen. It hasn’t hit me at all yet. Oh man, I was waiting to go and I thought I might have left it too late. I thought he might have got me.”

While reflecting on the day’s sprint, the Irish cyclist admitted:

“I forgot to throw the bike at the line in the moment and I thought he might have got me. I thought I’d be in floods of tears but I’m in shock.”

Bennett, who became very emotional and broke down in tears, continued:

“I just want to thank everyone that has been involved, the whole team, Patrick for giving me this opportunity and just everybody it took to get to here. I want to thank my wife, everyone around me.

“You dream of it, you never think it’ll happen. It did and, I don’t know, it took for a while to hit me.”

To add to today’s success, Bennett now regains the lead in the points classification, by 21 points, from seven-time green jersey winner Peter Sagan.

Tour de France leader Primoz Roglic retained the yellow jersey as he safely negotiated the flat 168.5km route from Ile d’Oleron Le Chateau. The Slovenian maintains his 21 seconds advantage over defending champion Egan Bernal.

In the day’s intermediate sprint Matteo Trentin (CCC) outsprinted Peter Sagan and Sam Bennett at Châtelaillon-Plage with 39 kilometres to go. Jumbo-Visma and Ineos-Grenadier put the pressure on with 18 kilometres to race before the bunch split into three pieces.

With the field back together 10 kilometres from the finish, Jumbo-Visma kept the situation under control before Nicolas Roche’s Team Sunweb went to the front. In the end, it was the races big sprinters who fought it out, with the Carrick-On-Suir man coming out on top.

Bennett becomes the sixth Irishman to win a stage at the Tour de France after Shay Elliott (1963), Seán Kelly (1978, 1980, 1981 and 1982), Stephen Roche (1985, 1987 and 1992), Martin Earley (1989) and Dan Martin (2013 and 2018).

Stage 10 result

1. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) 3hrs 35mins 22secs.
2. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) same time.
3. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) same time.

Dan Martin finished 130^th on the stage, 5 minutes and 25 second behind his fellow Irish rider. Martin’s cousin Nicolas Roche was 10 minutes 52 seconds back after a crash.

Martin is now the highest ranked of the three Irish riders at this year’s Tour, standing in 64^th place on general classification, 1 hour 11 minutes and 13 seconds behind the race leader Primoz Roglic.

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Stage 8 from Cazères-sur-Garonne saw early attacks as Benoît Cosnefroy and Nans Peters (AG2R-La Mondiale), Ilnur Zakarin (CCC), Kevin Reza and Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept), Michael Morkov (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Neilson Powless (EF), Fabien Grellier and Jérôme Cousin (Total Direct Energie), Carlos Verona (Movistar), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segrafredo), Soren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb) and Ben Hermans (Israel Start-Up Nation) formed a 13-man breakaway group which at one stage of the day’s race had an advantage of 14’15’.

On the climb of the Port de Balès, Cousin rode away from the breakaway with 60km remaining but was reeled in 9km before the top of Port de Balès. Peters, Zakarin and Pacher moved into position while Jumbo-Visma seized the reins of the peloton.

Eventual stage winner Peters crossed the Port de Balès in first position with 36.5km to go, along with Zakarin but the Russian didn’t manage to follow the Frenchman in the downhill.

Peters started the ascent to col de Peyresourde with an advantage of 45 seconds’ over his rival. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) worked hard at the front of the chase but Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) was first to attack, followed by Primoz Roglic and Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic).

Pogacar went again, so did Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and Quintana at the beginning of the downhill. While Peters kept his advantage to win stage 8, the yellow jersey group was reunited behind Pogacar who reduced his deficit on General Classification.

Bardet gained two seconds to move up as well but Yates remained in the yellow jersey with Rogli content to stay in second place.

Ireland’s Sam Bennett did claw back two points in the green jersey race thanks to the day’s intermediate sprint.

The Carrick-on-Suir rider is now just seven points behind points classification leader Peter Sagan, with 131 points to the Slovakian’s 138.

Team Sunweb’s Nicolas Roche is in 59th place overall, 46 minutes and 36 seconds behind yellow jersey-wearer Adam Yates, while Israel Start-Up Nation’s Dan Martin in 71st, almost an hour down.

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