Tour of California: Bennett wins overall at the WorldTour leve
LottoNL-Jumbo’s New Zealander George Bennett won the overall today in the Tour of California, new to the new WorldTour for 2017. In the last stage to Pasadena, he defended the overall leader’s jersey against Rafal Majka and Andrew Talansky, second and third overall. Evan Huffman took the honours in the final stage.
“Only when I rode under the banner for the final three kilometres did I know that I had won,” Bennett said. “I was a bit under pressure, but the team was awesome today. They showed some serious good legs, and so thanks to them. "
It was Bennett’s first win at the WorldTour level. The Tour of California has been around for a decade, but the UCI upgraded it to WorldTour this year.
"It was a very hectic day,” Bennett continued. “We thought everything was under control, but then the attacks began. We had to fight for 100 kilometres.”
Team LottoNL-Jumbo kept cool heads, but they didn’t have a free ride to Pasadena. The stage started in High Mountain and after a long descent, the riders climbed two second category and one third category mountain. Despite the many attacks, the team and leader Bennett did not crack. In the final, ab unthreatening group drove clear with the eventual stage winner Huffman.
Bennett earned his first victory with the Tour of California overall title. For Team LottoNL-Jumbo, it is a big boost since it marks the team’s first overall victory in a WorldTour race since 2013. This season the team took ten victories.
"I'm going to build on this," continued Bennett. "This victory will make a big difference to me. I want to back this up in Europe too in the future."
Bennett laid the foundation for the final victory in the individual time trial of yesterday. For Team LottoNL-Jumbo, time trialling and shorter stage races a focus area. In recent months, and in close collaboration with Shimano, Lazer and Bianchi, the team has invested heavily in testing the material and the bicycle position in the wind tunnel. Not only did it deliver a good time trial, but an overall victory at the highest level.
