{"id":319543,"date":"2025-08-05T10:11:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T10:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/319543\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T10:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T10:11:15","slug":"sam-bennett-crashes-in-poland-on-return-to-racing-after-two-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/319543\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Bennett crashes in Poland on return to racing after two months"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"966\" height=\"597\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Kooij-by-Szymon-Gruchalski.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-197478\"  \/>Sam Bennett\u2019s efforts ended just before the final sprint at Tour de Pologne, won by Dutchman Olav Kooij, with Darren Rafferty safely through the nervy opening stage (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski)<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Sam Bennett\u2019s hopes of getting back into action with a big result, after a two-month break from racing, were dashed on the opening stage at Tour de Pologne when he crashed in the final. The Irishman appeared to come down quite heavily, with most of the other fallers crashing onto him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">His Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team confirmed Bennett was caught in the crash, which ended his participation in the sprint. He rolled over the line in last place on the stage, after the fall with just under 2km to go, just as he looked well-placed for the sprint.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Bennett was close to the front, on the right of the peloton, when the crash occurred. It looked like one of the riders may have clipped a high kerb to their right, though it was unclear if Bennett or another rider was the first faller.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Either way, the crash appeared to be caused by a mishap rather than any severe movement in the bunch and Bennett looked like he took quite a knock. He was pictured sitting on the road after the incident, with the others who came down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">He was able to get back on his bike and finish the stage. As the incident occurred well inside the 3km safety zone, he lost no time in the general classification. The fact he has crashed, in what is his first race since the Giro d\u2019Italia ended on June 1st, is a blow, both physically and mentally.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"801\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Bennett-sam-by-Tomasz-Smietana-1-1200x801.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-197454\"  \/>Sam Bennett, third from left, with his Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team mates at the team presentation in Poland (Photo: Tomasz Smietana)<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Today\u2019s opening stage in Poland \u2013 which took the riders 154km from Wroc\u0142aw to Legnica \u2013 looks like the only nailed-on bunch sprint of the race. And if today proves the only clear chance for the fast men, the crash will look even more costly in time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Darren Rafferty (EF Education-EasyPost) is also riding Tour de Pologne and may get a chance for himself this week. In Poland he is racing on terrain that can suit him, including the TT on the final stage, though at 12.5km, that is perhaps a little on the short side for the Irishman.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">However, the course in Poland generally is hilly and should suit \u2018roadmen\u2019 climbers like Rafferty. That starts tomorrow when the riders face 149.4km to Karpacz, featuring 2,200m of climbing, including a 3.1km hill, averaging 6.7 per cent, to the finish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Today\u2019s stage 1 bunch sprint, and first leader\u2019s jersey of the race, was taken by Visma-Lease a Bike\u2019s Olav Kooij from 21-year-old Frenchman Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) and Jensen Plowright (Alpecin-Deceuninck).<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Kooij secured the victory fair and square, though the lead-out he got from Matthew Brennan, one of the breakthrough young stars of the season, was clumsy, at best.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Britain\u2019s Brennan got to the front with Kooij on his wheel with just a few hundred metres to go and then looked behind twice, before moving to his left. He was lucky not to cause a crash but derailed the sprint effort of Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf1\ud83e\udee8\ud83d\udca5 El <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Tour_de_Pologne?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@Tour_de_Pologne<\/a> es esto: tensi\u00f3n, ca\u00eddas, altas velocidades y uno de los grandes dominadores del a\u00f1o<\/p>\n<p>Olav Kooij, primer l\u00edder en Legnica ante uno de los &#8216;dinosaurios&#8217; \ud83e\udd96, Paul Magnier<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcfa Hasta el domingo 10, vive la carrera en <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/E1?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#E1<\/a> y <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StreamMaxES?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@StreamMaxES<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YyCdFfM2ng\">pic.twitter.com\/YyCdFfM2ng<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Eurosport_ES\/status\/1952381813931872348?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">August 4, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Bennett\u2019s efforts ended just before the final sprint at Tour de Pologne, won by Dutchman Olav Kooij,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-319543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114975623424475468","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}