Tour de France 2020: Sam Bennett sprints to Stage 10 win

Deceuninck - Quick-Step’s Sam Bennett secured his first Tour de France victory with a sprint to Stage 10 glory.

Bennett held off Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) who finished strongly, with Peter Sagan (BORA - hansgrohe) coming across the line third, and having come close but not close enough to victory on three stages of this year’s race the Irishman was unable to hold back tears in his post-race interview. Bennett is now a stage winner at all three Grand Tours.

It was a nervy day in the peloton, with the fear of crosswinds meaning there was fighting for positions for the finish from as early as 30km out from the expected bunch-sprint finish at Île de Ré.

Michael Schär (CCC Team) and Stefan Küng (Groupama FDJ) formed a two-man break as soon as the flag dropped for km0, and the Swiss pair worked together to establish an advantage of 1’30” over the peloton. By kilometre 69 of the 168.5km parcours they had been reeled in however, with the expected crosswinds playing on the minds of the teams with GC aspirations, as well as those with sprint objectives.

Some crashes caused splits as a nervous peloton entered the final 60km, with some of the big names such as Tadej Pogacar caught up. With a jittery peloton eager to get into position, there were crashes that caused splits as the pace was upped ahead of the sprint finish.

There was no change in the GC, with Primoz Roglic remaining in yellow for another day.

Velon Live Race Centre

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Relive the Milano-Sanremo action, review rider data and see how the race unfolded in your desired language by clicking on the relevant link:

Milano-Sanremo 2020	English	French	German	Spanish	Italian	Dutch

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Il Lombardia 2020	English	French	German	Spanish	Italian	Dutch

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Strade Bianche 2020	English	French	German	Spanish	Italian	Dutch

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Velon Live Race Centre - Explainer

The Race Centre’s new features that make it a must-have for all cycling enthusiasts. The pioneering Red Zone will tell you who has and hasn’t been riding above a sustainable effort, so you’ll be able to work out who is likely to burn out and who could come on strong at the end of the race.

The Spotlight area enables you to select up to 10 riders and compare their live data side by side. So, if a handful of riders are on the attack on the Poggio during Milano-Sanremo or the Madonna del Ghisallo during Il Lombardia, you’ll be able to see who’s on the limit and who has something in reserve.

Finally, we’ve introduced a new Moments section, which will bring you not just race updates, but also analytical snippets such as which rider has produced the highest power in the race so far, who has hit the highest speed, who’s spent most time in the Red Zone, which team is conserving their energy best, and much more.

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The Race Centre will be available at the following races:

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- October 18: Tour of Flanders

Gran Piemonte 2020: George Bennett solos to win

George Bennett launched a scorching attack in the final kilometres of Gran Piemonte, laying down 550W for a full minute to see off any challenges as he soloed to victory at the one-day Italian race.

A four-man break was established early on as Joey Rosskopf (CCC Pro Team), Mikkel Honoré (Deceuninck - Quick-Step), Callum Scotson (Mitchelton-SCOTT) and Philipp Walsleben (Alpecin-Fenix) got away and built up a lead that stretched to over five minutes at one point.

By the time the break was caught at 8.6km to go it had been whittled down to just Rosskopf and Honoré. By that point, Rosskopf had averaged 295W over 4h 20min in an epic effort, with his normalised power standing at an impressive 330W.

The attacks started on the final climb to La Morra, which the peloton had already covered twice in the race, as Vincenzo Nibali tried to send his Trek-Segafredo team-mate Giulio Ciccone off on an assault on victory. Team Jumbo-Visma’s Bennett was alert and countered, setting off on a solo attack and building up a lead of over 10 seconds with under 5km to go. The New Zealander sustained his incredible effort of 550W for a minute on the 6% gradient to pull away from Team INEOS’s Gianni Moscon, the only rider who was able to go with him momentarily.

Riding on the limit after a rain shower made the roads a tricky prospect, and a chase group of six riders tried to reel Bennett in. UAE Team Emirates’ Diego Ulissi made up ground on Bennett on the final uphill stretch to the finish line, but Bennett held on for the victory. Mathieu van der Poel completed the podium as he won the bunch sprint for third.

Here’s a recap of some of the standout rider data recorded from the race: