Sam Bennett of Deceuninck-Quick Step won stage 10 in a bunch gallop on the scenic Ré island that hosted the Tour de France for the first time. Also coming from an island, the Irishman found himself at ease to use the elements including the three-quarter head wind to fend off Caleb Ewan, the fast man from the island-continent Australia. Bagging his first Tour de France win after imposing himself at the Giro d’Italia and La Vuelta, he also took over the green jersey from Peter Sagan who crossed the line in third place while Primoz Roglic retained the yellow jersey.
KÜNG AND SCHÄR, FROM THE GUN
165 riders took the start of stage 10 at Île d’Oléron, Domenico Pozzovivo (NTT) having chosen to call it a race as he was in pain since his crash on stage 1. Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Michael Schär (CCC) attacked from the gun, before the bridge to reach the continent. The reached a maximum advantage of 2’ along the Palmyre beach at km 33. The peloton led by Lotto-Soudal and Deceuninck-Quick Step sped up as top teams feared echelons. The Swiss duo got reeled in at km 69 while a crash occurred in the middle of the pack. Everyone got back on, except for Sam Bewley (Mitchelton-Scott) who was forced to abandon.
G. MARTIN AND POGACAR CRASH
Another crash affected some top contenders in Rochefort, km 103, as Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), third and seventh overall, went down. They got back to the pack after a hard chase while Deceuninck-Quick Step, Ineos-Grenadier and EF kept the race under control. Matteo Trentin (CCC) outsprinted Peter Sagan and Sam Bennett on the line of the intermediate sprint at Châtelaillon-Plage with 39km to go.
SAM BENNETT, THE SIXTH IRISH STAGE WINNER
Jumbo-Visma and Ineos-Grenadier put the hammer down with 18km to go. The bunch got split into three pieces and a crash affected Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). Küng attacked again over the bridge to Ré island. It was all together with 10km to go with Jumbo-Visma keeping the situation under control. Team Sunweb gave Cees Bol an excellent lead out but the pure sprinters made the best of it. Preceding Ewan on the line, Bennett became the sixth Irishman to win a stage at the Tour de France after Seamus Elliott (1963), Sean Kelly (1978, 1980, 1981 and 1982), Stephen Roche (1985, 1987 and 1992), Martin Earley (1989) and Dan Martin (2013 and 2018).
