Paris (AFP)
Fireworks at dusk: the Irishman Sam Bennett, green jersey, dominated the sprint of the 21st and final stage of the Tour de France, Sunday on the Champs-Elysées, for his second success since the start of the Great Loop.
The Irish champion (29) led a masterful sprint to win in front of the world champion, the Danish Mads Pedersen, and his predecessor in the points classification, the Slovakian Peter Sagan.
Bennett got stuck in Pedersen's wheel at the entrance to the final straight.
He then dislocated from the wake of Belgian Jasper Stuyven, who was leading the sprint for the Dane, and won without striking a blow to remove his first triumph on the Champs-Elysées.
"Everyone told me not to get out too early. At the last corner, it opened up," jubilated the Irishman from the Deceuninck team, already winner of the 10th stage at Saint-Martin-de- Ré (Charente-Maritime).
The winner of last year, the Australian Caleb Ewan, remained locked up, without being able to join in the fight for victory (7th), behind the Belgian Wout van Aert (6th), also dominated.
In this 122-kilometer stage, the peloton, which marched through western Paris from Mantes-la-Jolie, remained calm until the first crossing over the line, 54 kilometers from the finish.
Four riders (Périchon, Schachmann, Swift, Van Avermaet) took the lead as the intermediate sprint approached, which allowed Bennett to secure his green jersey.
But the quartet remained muzzled, less than 20 seconds, by the team members of the sprinters until the junction between the peloton and the last taken, the German champion Maximilian Schachmann, less than four kilometers from the finish.
© 2020 AFP