Tour de France battle comes to premature end for brave Sam Bennett

Sam Bennett’s Tour de France came to an end on the 17th stage of the race yesterday when he was forced to abandon.

The 24 year-old Carrick-on-Suir sprinter was making his debut in the three-week Grand Tour and came into it in less than ideal form having missed a month of competition beforehand due to a bout of sickness.

“It was never going to be an easy task, even if I was at full health,” he said afterwards.

“I think the lack of preparation really showed, it made the race even more difficult.

“It’s the biggest race of the year and you can’t hide anywhere, but I’m really happy I did it and I got so far.

“I pushed my body and raced more and more to see what I can get out of myself. I learned from the race and to see the standard I need to get is very important.

“I also think if I was at 100%, that I would have raced a lot better.

“I felt like I didn’t get to show what I am about in this race which is disappointing and then being last in GC wasn’t good for the ego either.

“But I went on until I was completely empty until I literally had nothing left. It’s been all I could give.”

Bennett was last overall and recently spoke about being in “survival mode”, with his only ambition being to get to the finish in Paris this Sunday.

But all hopes of that evaporated yesterday when he pulled out with over 100 kilometres to go after becoming distanced from the peloton.

His sole result from the race has been a 10th place on stage seven.

Other casualties yesterday were world champion Michal Kwiatkowski, Nathan Haas, Laurent Didier and Jerome Coppel.