Sometimes these spring cobbled classics end up as mud-splattered wars of attrition, only this one turned into another purely tactical bunch sprint - and with that saw Sam Bennett denied the win at the 109th Scheldeprijs, the oldest race on the Flemish calendar, by just half the length of his bike.
Also known as the unofficial world championship for sprinters, given its status and mostly flat parcours, Bennett appeared poised for another collective and then individual shot at the win, with four team-mates from Deceuninck-QuickStep for company as the 30-rider breakaway entered the three-lap circuit around Schoten in Belgium with 50km still remaining.
All 30 riders were still in contention at the flame rouge, only Bennett's lead-out man Michael Morkov was then slightly jumped on the right-hand side by the Alpecin-Fenix rider Jonas Rickaert, who then unleashed their Belgian rider Jasper Philipsen for the home win, his first at the Scheldeprijs.
Bennett was momentarily blocked behind the two, unable to accelerate as fully as might, and by the time space opened up and he was able to jump again Philipsen was over the line, Bennett that half a bike length behind in second, with former three-time winner and now his Deceuninck-QuickStep team-mate Mark Cavendish rounding off the podium positions in third. It was actually a sixth top-three finish for the 35 year-old British rider.
The reaction of the Irish rider - a clear shake of the head in disappointment - captured his sentiments: just two weeks after Bennett had ended his long wait to win a first one-day classic, with a victory in the 45th Brugge-De Panne, this was also well set up until just inside the last 500m, when his lead-out train possibly hit their full throttle a little too late.
With the postponement of Paris-Roubaix until October, it was also Bennett’s last race of the spring classics, which had him looking for his sixth win in all, to go with two each won already in the Tour of the UAE and Paris-Nice.
The 194km race, which started in Terneuzen in the Netherlands and finished in Schoten on the outskirts of Belgium, was also Bennett's fourth classic of the season, which between them covered 945km: he punctured in one (Milan San-Remo), won one (Brugge-De Panne), got sick in one (Gent-Wevelgem, after being part of the breakaway for 150km), and now finished second in another.
Bennett had also started this one looking to become the first Irish winner - Scheldeprij one of the very few spring classics Sean Kelly never added to his palmarès.
Despite the cold, wintry conditions, the race was fast, averaging over 50kph from the start, and once Bennett got into the breakaway of riders just over halfway through it was always set to come down the sprint, just not for his winning. Bennett has yet to announce his next run-up of races before the Tour de France, which begins in Brest on June 26th, where he will defend his green jersey of 2020.
