George Bennett was unable to hold his top three spot in the general classification of the Amgen Tour of California on Friday. Team LottoNL-Jumbo’s cyclist finished 38th in the time trial around Folsom and sunk to the ninth overall. Team-mate Alexey Vermeulen finished 16^th behind winner Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing Team).

The 20.3-kilometre time trial around Folsom gave an important chance for the overall riders to win some time. It was a decisive stage for New Zealander George Bennett in his chase for a top three overall. Beforehand he sat third, but lost that spot with a time of 1’53” behind Dennis.

“George is not a time trial specialist, but he fought for what he’s worth,” Sports Director Frans Maassen said. “It wasn’t good enough to stay close to the favourites, unfortunately.”

Room for improvement 

“I didn’t have a good day,” Bennett added. “I wanted to do better, but in the end, I wasn’t good enough to fight for the podium. I felt really good, actually, but just struggled to put the power down on a time trial bike. There is still room for progress by riding more hours on the time trial bike.”

21-year-old Vermeulen was the best Team LottoNL-Jumbo rider of the day. The American finished 16th at 1’12”. “I was surprised by his strong time trial,” Maassen said. “Vermeulen is still very young. He delivered a great performance.”