The whole Bora-hansgrohe team was clearly delighted with Sam Bennett's victory on La Vuelta stage 3 - his second win in two days. Bennett is also now building an early lead in the points classification.
Former Irish road race and TT champion Ryan Mullen was again at the front in the finale into Breda in the Netherlands, pulling Danny van Poppel into position, with Bennett just behind him.
And after the finish - video below - a delighted Mullen told Bennett: "Now you're just showing off."
Bennett himself said the stage was a nervous one, adding the team had looked after him very well through the stage before his last lead-out man, Van Poppel, launched him in the sprint.
“It was quite hard because I think a lot of people were fighting for our wheel. I think it’s just the natural flow… that people started to go up beside me and squeeze me off,” he said of being bumped a little on the run in to the finish.
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“So I had a few tough moments just to hold Danny (van Poppel’s) wheel. It was quite a hard fight. But the boys again, what can I say; Jonas (Koch) riding all day,” he added of his team mate putting in a big shift to help bring back the early breakaway.
“The boys were looking after me in the bunch all day, getting me bottles when it was hard. Today wasn’t hard watts-wise but it was a lot of accelerating out of the corners, all day, a really nervous day.
“But, again, the job they did in the final….. Jonas, even though he was riding all day, came back and did another big turn. Ryan (Mullen) kept us up there, taking so much wind, and then Danny, it was a master class.”
Asked if it was important for him to confirm his form again after yesterday’s win, Bennett said “for it to happen two days in a row, it was quite nice”. “This is confidence-boosting for sure,” he said.
