Daniele Bennati has won the bunch sprint on the third stage of the Tour de Wallonie. His sprint victory ahead of Danilo Napolitano (Astana) and Alexander Kristoff (BMC) marks his fifth win of the season and demonstrates his return to form after a crash at the Tour de Romandie derailed his season. Giacomo Nizzolo, Davide Viganò and Robert Wagner led out the Italian sprinter who handily captured the win.

“The team was excellent today,” said Bennati. “They did a a really good job. They were in complete control during the final kilometers and set me up perfectly for the win. It’s an important victory for me and my teammates.”

The longest stage of the five day Tour featured only two climbs before the expected mass finish in Perwez. An early break of three riders slipped away near the start, and BMC spent the entire day controlling the gap in the interest of race leader Greg Van Avermaet.

“We assumed there would be a break that would go away,” said Sports Director Lars Michaelson. “I asked my riders not to go into the breakaway, because we were looking for the sprint finish.”

BMC brought back the three rider break before the time bonus sprint, 17 kilometers from the finish. With the field back together, LEOPARD TREK could concentrate on the bunch sprint.

“Seven kilometers from the finish we put Anders [Lund], Tom [Stamsnijder] and Martin [Mortensen] on the front,” explained Michaelsen. “They moved up to do the pace-making work for our leadout train. They worked from seven kilometers to go until a bit more than two kilometers to go.”

“From there, Nizzolo took over,” continued Michaelsen. “He did a pull until nearly one kilometer to go. Viganò took over until 700 meters, and then Wagner provided the final push. They were one big line. It was exactly how we wanted them to be.”

Bennati echoed Michaelsen’s description of the near perfect leadout. “My teammates did a fantastic job to make the sprint as easy as possible for me as they could. I’m very happy with the win.”