Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) secured his third stage win at the 4 Jours de Dunkerque, attacking on the short final Mont Cassel climb while wearing the overall leader's jersey. The Irishman won the stage and extended his lead in the overall classification.
Bennett was the fastest of the five riders who sprinted for the finish line leaving Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ) in second, Jenno Berckmoes (Lotto Dstny) in third place, Luca Van Boven (Bingoal WB) in fourth and Alexandre Delettre (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93) in fifth on the day.
Bennett leads the overall classification into the stage 6 final on Sunday, 28 seconds ahead of Penhoët and 31 seconds ahead of Berckmoes.
The fifth stage at 4 Jours de Dunkerque was a 179.1km race from Arques to Cassel. It included an opening 60km and then nine finishing circuits, which included cobbled sectors, three ascents on each lap, and a finish on Mont Cassel.
In the opening kilometres, three riders, Fausto Masnada (Soudal-QuickStep), Jeremy Lecroq (St Michel-Mavis-Auber93), and Enzo Leijnse (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), formed a small gap.
The gap opened to three minutes on a trio of chasers: Rait Ärm (Van Rysel-Roubaix), Gwen Leclainche (Philippe Wagner/Bazin), and Enzo Boulet (CIC U Nantes Atlantique), and then five minutes on the main field with 120km to go.
While the peloton caught the chase group as they entered the circuits with 112km to go, the breakaway continued to maintain its gap.
Masnada attacked his companions inside 70km, opening a small five-second lead on Leijnse and 25 seconds on Lecroq. And with the trio refusing to work together, the peloton slashed the gap to under three minutes.
The peloton led by Israel-Premier Tech swept up Leijnse and Lecroq at 47km to go, and Masnada was soon reeled in with 35km to go.
The late-race attacks began, which led the way to another breakaway that included Samuel Watson (Groupama-FDJ), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep), Thomas Gachignard (TotalEnergies), Joris Delbove (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93), Alexis Guerin (Philippe Wagner/Bazin).
The five riders held 20 seconds on the run-in to the finish as Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale pulled the peloton into the final eight kilometres.
The attackers were caught inside the final two kilometres and a reduced field barreled into the final ascent. Overall race leader Bennett launched his attack, quickly followed by Penhoët, Van Boven, Delettre, and Berckmoes.
Bennett proved to be the strongest of the late-race breakaway and sprinted for the stage victory in Cassel.
Results
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