Sam Bennett achieved his first victory of the season during the chaotic sprint finish of stage 1 at the Tour de la Provence. The 169km course ended in Saint-Victoret, where Bennett outpaced Lukáš Kubiš and Alexis Renard after a challenging race marked by solo attacks and wind. Despite the disorganized finish, Bennett's teamwork and strategic riding culminated in his win, which also placed him in the race lead going into stage 2, ahead of Kubiš and Renard.
We wanted to come here and get our first win of the season. We knew it was going to be quite a hard beginning of the race... but we managed to pull it off.
It was quite windy but it actually helped me because a lot of the time it was actually a headwind over the climb, so it allowed me to get over in a better group.
The team were fantastic, and I want to thank them for the amazing support. They didn't give up hope on me after Bessegès and we came here and I'm glad to repay them with a victory.
Bennett now holds the race lead heading into another hilly day on stage 2, with four seconds on Kubiš and six on Renard.
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