For the third stage in succession a sprint finish would decide the victor of the 3rd Bayern Rundfahrt stage. Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon) would ride away with all the spoils today as he bested Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) and Ramunas Navardauskus (Cannondale-Garmin).
An early break of 5 riders would go clear today but much like the opening two stages, the interest in the stage win by the sprinters teams was just too great and they never really stood a chance. Even though the parcours was slightly tougher than the previous two stages the race came back together on the finishing circuits with just 15km to go.
MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung would concentrate its efforts on delivering Reinardt Janse van Rensburg to a good position for the sprint finale. Despite their being a small climb on the finishing circuit which would be completed 3 times, it was still a fairly large group that came to the line together. Our African team were certainly hoping for more of a selection but it was not to be and Reinie would do battle with the masses.
In the end Reinie would cross the line in 9th place, his 3rd successive top 10 finish in three days. The next port of call will be tomorrow’s time trial. With our strong time trialling captain Steve Cummings no longer in contention our riders will look to put in a consistent effort tomorrow before launching their final assault on Sunday’s final road stage.
Reinardt Janse van Rensburg – Rider
Jens Zemke – Head of Performance
