Tour Down Under offers up first Viviani versus Bennett sprint clash

Sam Bennett gets the better of Elia Viviani (right) on stage 7 of the 2018 Giro d'Italia
Sam Bennett gets the better of Elia Viviani (right) on stage 7 of the 2018 Giro d'Italia (Image credit: Getty Images)

A new season means new sprint rivalries, and the Tour Down Under will see the first sprint-off between Elia Viviani and Sam Bennett – the past and present lead sprinter for Deceuninck-QuickStep.

Viviani won 18 races with Deceuninck-QuickStep in 2018, and another 11 in 2019, including a first-ever stage at the Tour de France. He would have loved to have ridden the Belgian team's lead-out train to further victories in 2020, but received an offer he couldn't refuse from Cofidis.

Stephen Farrand
Head of News

Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.