Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) won the opening stage of the BinckBank Tour, taking the race lead in a wet sprint finish in Hulst. Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) took second, while Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma) finished third. Bahrain-Merida and Trek-Segafredo led the way in the closing kilometres, and in the closing metres Theuns looked set for victory after a strong lead-out. On the line, however, it was Bennett who jumped from behind a boxed-in Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma), hitting the wind at just the right time to speed past and take his ninth win of the season. “I’m really happy,” said Bennett after the stage. “It’s my first win in this [national champion’s] jersey and I’m happy that it’s come sooner rather than later. I’m delighted.ADVERTISEMENT “It was pretty dangerous. I was just trying to keep up front. The guys did a good job keeping me there and I kept in a good position in the last 2km and just tried to hold on to the bigger trains. I just tried to stay out of trouble really. “To be honest, I was nervous with the rain, I had a few skids in the race. But it was good, I can’t complain.” Bennett takes the green leader’s jersey into stage two, another flat stage from Blankenberge to Ardooie. Lukasz Wisniowski (CCC Team) and Lars Bak (Dimension Data) lie in second and third, two and three second down respectively, after taking bonus seconds at the ‘golden kilometre’ sector. How it unfolded
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