Sam Bennett also used the final sprint stage of the Italian tour to score a top result. After 210 kilometers and continuous rain, the 24-years old Irish rider sprinted to the 8th place in Porto Sant'Elpidio. The peloton split before and many favorites on the stage victory got distanced. BORA – ARGON 18 rode attentively and established several riders, among them Bennett, in the front group. Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) won ahead of Gerald Ciolek (MTN-Qhubeka) and Jens Debusschere (Lotto-Soudal).

“The result is a nice one for Sam and a great finish for him despite the tough weather conditions. Unfortunately Zak [Dempster] didn’t make the cut for the lead group plus Paul [Voss] and Björn [Thurau] had to abandon the race today. So only our climbers could support Sam in the final. Of course this situation isn’t as perfect as with an established lead-out. But the higher one must value the result of Sam”, Enrico Poitschke describes the stage. 

An individual time trial over 10 kilometers in San Benedetto del Tronto on the coast of the Adriatic Sea will close the 50th edition of Tirreno-Adriatico tomorrow.