© Reuters/POOLTour de France
BOLLENE, France (Reuters) - Ireland's Sam Bennett claimed his second victory of this year's week-long Paris-Nice race with a perfectly timed sprint in the fifth stage on Thursday.
Bennett, who won the opening stage on Sunday, benefited from the work of his Deceuninck-Quick Step lead-out train to beat France's Nacer Bouhanni and German Pascal Ackermann.
"The guys were incredible today," said Bennett.
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"Some (riders) won't let me follow my own train for some reason, they don't concentrate on their own sprint.
"It was a very hard final, I didn't think I would hold it to the line but I'm proud I finished it off."
Slovenian Primoz Roglic retained the overall leader's yellow jersey at the end of the 200-km ride between Vienne and Bollene ahead of German Maximilian Schachmann.
The race will not get its traditional finale on Nice's Promenade des Anglais this year because regional authorities said it would have to avoid the city, which will be under a lockdown on Saturday and Sunday because of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Kevin Liffey)