Years of practice and lots of self confidence saw Sam Bennett coolly shrug off the efforts of one of the best teams in the world to out-muscle him in the sprint to the finish line in Argentina.
The videos below show how Sam Bennett masterfully handled extreme pressure from Deceuninck-QuickStep to win the final stage of Vuelta a San Juan.
Deep inside the final kilometre the eventual runner-up Alvaro Hodeg (Deceuninck-QuickStep) is being led to the finish by team mate Maximiliano Richeze.
Just before the sprint really opens up, Richeze is trapped and needs to move to his left to get into clear road with Hodeg in his wheel.
To his left is Sam Bennett and the Argentine rider shoulders the Irishman; a not uncommon occurrence in professional sprinting.
Sam Bennett is bounced hard to his left and turns to see who has barged him.
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He then glances behind Richeze and sees Hodeg. Bennett allows both go past and gets into the slipstream of Hodeg.
And from there he simply waits until precisely the right moment to come out off his wheel to win.
It was incredible composure at this speed and so close to the finish line.
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The first clip below is not the best quality but from 3:41:57 in the second clip you'll see an uninterrupted overhead view of the full sprint.
The head-on footage (in the first video below) shows Bennett bounced out into the road, to the right of the shot as you look at it head on.
The overhead footage then shows Bennett get in behind the two riders in blue and simply wait for his chance to pounce.
The scenario is much clearer to see in the second clip below, though you will need to go to 3:41:57 in what is a near five-hour long video. The clip is set to view at that point when you click on it.
@Sammmy_Be ?? (@BORAhansgrohe) se quedó con la última etapa de la #VueltaSJ2019 al triunfar en el sprint final sobre @Alvaro_Hodeg ??
Ricardo Escuela fue 9° y despidió el certamen metiéndose entre los 10 mejores en 3 de las 7 etapas. #Ciclismo #Ruta
— Daniel Piloni (@DaniPiloni) February 3, 2019
Aerial video set to start at 3hrs 41mins 57secs
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