Sam Bennett could not fulfill his hopes of following compatriot Sean Kelly to victory 42 years after the Tour de France finished in Poitel, but he still took second place on stage 11, significantly strengthening his hold on the green jersey.

Bennett was well-positioned in the closing kilometers, while teammates Kasper Asgreen and Bob Jungels did a great job of containing the late attack of Lucas Pestlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe).

But Caleb Yuan accelerated late, and Lotto Soudal's Fastman passed Bennett in the final moments, giving the Dečuninck-Quickstep sprinter a chance to repeat his first Tour victory 24 hours earlier on Ile de Re.

"I don't really know what happened. It was very hectic," Bennett said after the race.

"The team did a great job all day. In the race, I found it difficult to switch from following my teammate to driving alone, and I found myself too far in front too early. Then I tried to drift back but it was a little too late to drift back. Then they got up to speed and I don't know what happened, but I got totally confused. I tried to minimize my losses and get the best result I could."

He said it was not his plan to have teammates Bob Jungels and Caspar Asgreen go on the attack. Rather, they were chasing Austrian Pestleberger, who was looking to replicate his 2017 Giro d'Italia success on the opening stage in Sardinia.

"I let my wheels go and I think Lotto let his wheels go too. So I was yelling over the radio, 'Go, go, go. So if they have a chance to win, that would be great," Bennett reasoned.

"I told them there was a gap and got them to look back and see so they would understand the situation. But in the end it was a very hard final.

He was almost disdainful of the idea that Pestlberger's attack had disrupted his sprint train. He said, "The plan was that if someone left the front, the others would follow. They had a very different idea than we did."

"They were just burning matches because we were trying to make our own way in the last 3km."

When asked to pass judgment on the incident between Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Wout Van Aert (Jumbo Visma) in the stage 11 finale, Bennett was cautious, saying he needed to watch it on TV first before making a clear statement. 21]

However, he noted that "a big part of sprinting is bumping shoulders and rubbing shoulders," and jokingly added, "I really don't know what happened, but since when did sprinting become soft?"

He added that "I don't know what happened, but I don't know what happened.

In any case, he also questioned whether the green points-prize jersey, which is nearly 75 points ahead of Sagan's, is weaker in this particular ranking. He warned, "It feels like Sagan is getting stronger."

Nevertheless, Bennett's retention of the green jersey seems very certain, at least in the medium term, after winning the intermediate sprint behind breakaway leader Mathieu Ladagnoux (Groupama-FDJ). Even if victory in Poitiers proves impossible, he may follow in Sean Kelly's rut in this year's race.