Tour of Britain
Italian from Movistar Team takes 10th place at Blyth as fastmen dominate the scene in a race with no serious hills before the final weekend
After getting into the day's early break on Sunday's opener with Gorka Izagirre, the Movistar Team sought for a good result into stage two of the Tour of Britain with its sprinter Daniele Bennati. The expert Italian, in his build-up phase before the World Championships' road race in Norway, just less than three weeks away, finished 10th into a once-again narrow, twisty finish in Blyth (211km), where Edvald Boasson Hagen (DDD) initially took the day's honours. The Norwegian rider was later relegated due to irregular sprinting, which handed Elia Viviani (SKY) the stage victory.
'Benna' will have many other chances to test his legs into a race where only the routes on Saturday and Sunday offer considerable slopes, Thursday's 16km ITT in Essex set to be almost decisive. Riders will tackle a somewhat different finish in Scunthorpe on Tuesday (179km), as a 5% slope is covered into the last two kilometers.