SAM’S ON TIME AGAIN

IRELAND’S Sam Bennett claimed his second victory in this year’s week-long Paris-Nice race with a perfectly timed sprint in the fifth stage.

Bennett (right), who won the opening stage on Sunday, benefited from the work of his Deceuninck-Quick

Step lead-out train to beat France’s Nacer Bouhanni and German Pascal Ackermann.

“The guys were incredible today,” said Bennett. “Some (riders) won’t let me follow my own train for some reason, they don’t concentrate on their own sprint.

“It was a very hard final, I didn’t think I would hold it to the line but I’m proud I finished it off.” Slovenian Primoz Roglic retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey at the end of the 200kmride between Vienne and Bollene ahead of German Maximilian Schachmann.

The race will not get its traditional finale on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais as the city will be under a lockdown tomorrow and Sunday due to coronavirus.

FABIEN GALTHIE named his strongest possible France team for Le Crunch and then insisted he was not guilty of breaching Covid protocols.

Les Bleus’ game with Scotland last month was postponed after head coach Galthie and 12 players tested positive for the virus. Fingers were pointed at Galthie as the possible source of the outbreak for leaving the squad’s bubble to watch his son play rugby.

But he rejected the criticism after recalling his stars – including centre Virimi Vakatawa, captain Charles Ollivon and scrumhalf Antoine Dupont – to face England.

“All my actions, all our actions, were in compliance with the sanitary protocol,” said Galthie (above).

French sports minister Roxana Maracineanu had initially threatened to withdraw the team from the tournament, but an investigation cleared them of wrongdoing.