Sam Bennett surrendered the green points jersey after today’s fourth stage of the Paris-Nice, but only just.
The stage was won by Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo Visma) who’s also the new man in yellow.
Roglic has also accrued more sprint points than Bennett, given his finish, and sits six points clear of the Waterford rider.
Bennett sits level on points with Mads Pedersen (Trek Segafredo).
On a day with seven categorised climbs, and a pair of intermediate sprints tucked away in the final third of the stage, it was never likely to be a time for Bennett to shine.
Along with former yellow jersey-wearer Stefan Bissegger, he was dropped on the final climb up the Col de Durbize to Chiroubles.
🏁 🇸🇮@rogla a frappé fort en remportant la 4ème étape à Chiroubles et en prenant le @MaillotJauneLCL. 💛
⏪ Revivez le dernier kilomètre.
🏁 🇸🇮@rogla won the 4th stage in Chiroubles and took the @MaillotJauneLCL. 💛
⏪Relive the last kilometre.#ParisNice pic.twitter.com/XX4fTOELvt— Paris-Nice (@ParisNice) March 10, 2021
Bissegger ended up crossing the line eight-minutes behind Roglic and co.
In the end it was Tour de France runner-up who powered to the line, having shaken off the attentions of both Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis).
"Definitely happy about the result," said Roglic, who holds a 35-second lead over Schachmann, "Already yesterday was a nice one.
"I showed that I proved to myself that we were working good so yeah, it's beautiful and I'm super happy that we have two wins for our team today.
"It was a hard day, so it was something for me, definitely. It was beautiful that I had the legs and could finish it off.
"Definitely the goal is to have it in Nice, but yeah, we deserved it and I think we have a strong team here, so we go optimistic into the next stages.
"We'll do our best and we'll see what that means for the result."
Stage 5 should be more to Bennett's liking, depending on his recovery after Wednesday. It's a flat 203km ride from Vienne to Bollène.
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