Spain had waited two years for a stage win in any of the three Grand Tours and when Marc Soler landed the victory today at La Vuelta, Irishman Sam Bennett made sure not to cramp the home rider's style.
The Bora-hansgrohe man switched to survival mode today on hiller terrain the sprinters were never expected to feature on. However, he still had to visit the podium at stage 5 end for the presentation of his green jersey for points classification leader.
And as the Spanish fans and media were so excited after Soler's victory, Bennett literally hid behind the crowd control barriers as he rode his bike across the front of the podium stage. He was clearly determined not to photobomb the images or videos being taken of Soler (UAE Team Emirates) during his stage win presentation.
Advertisement
Related News
Bennett retained his green jersey of points classification leader when neither he nor his main rival so far - Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) - featured in the intermediate sprint or at the finish. Two late climbs - with the intermediate sprint between them - were always going to make it hard for the fast men. However, a large breakaway easily survived to the finish to mop up the lion's share of the points.
Soler attacked from the winning move with about 17km remaining of the 187.2km stage from Irún to Bilbao. He appeared to struggle on the final climb as the breakaway split but he fought back and then went on the attack about 2km from the crest of the 4.6km climb.
He soon caught lone leader Jake Stewart (Groupama FDJ) and dropped him. And while the remains of the breakaway very nearly caught the Spanish rider at several junctures over the last 15km, including on the final rise to the finish line, a delighted Soler hung on to win.
Just four seconds later, Daryl Impey (Israel Premier Tech) took the 10-man chasing group sprint for 2nd place from Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious). Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) was 4th and takes the race lead. The breakaway finished 5:05 up on the remains of the peloton, featuring race leader Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), ensuring it was Molard who moved into the leader's jersey.
Bennett and fellow Irishman, and Bora-hansgrohe team mate, Ryan Mullen both finished in the large final group on the road at 16:47. Mullen rode a great stage again today, often bossing the action on the front of the field to keep his GC men in place while Bennett was distanced on the climbs but managed to get back on several times.
