Bennett blazes Arctic Race of Norway

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Another season and another small milestone for Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon 18), who moved his win tally up to four for the season after victory on stage 2 of the Arctic Race of Norway. The 24-year-old edged out Frederico Zurlo (UnitedHealthcare) and race leader Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) in the finish at Setermoen and now has a win more than he did from the entirety of last season.

This was perhaps his best win of the season too, with the Irishman coming from a long way back to seal an impressive stage win. After a third place on stage 1 Bennett is showing a fine patch of post-Tour de France form.

“This is up there with my best wins. And it’s really good for my morale. Every year I want to step up and improve and last year I had three wins but I wanted an extra win this year to really say that I’ve made another step. I’ve got that now,” he told Cyclingnews after his win.

Bennett owned much to his team for this performance, especially Zakkari Dempster, who encouraged the sprinter to fight on despite what Bennett perceived as poor legs.

“It was hectic but coming into the last 10K I was feeling so bad and told the guys that I didn’t want to sprint but then Zak yelled at me to try and the boys did an incredible job and led me out perfectly. They kept their cool, which was really important. We got a bit swamped and I lost a wheel and was in a bad position but just kept coming through gaps.”