Sam Bennett may not have been able to sprint for a stage win on La Vuelta today but the Irish rider showed his strength in battling to 6th place to extend his lead in the points classification.
Bora-hansgrohe's Bennett was put under pressure on the main climb of the day as Trek-Segafredo took it up on the front in the hope the Irishman would be dropped and Mads Pedersen would have a shot at stage victory.
However, while Bennett was dropped on the 19.3km Puerto de San Glorio after Trek-Segafredo took it up on the front he was only distance about 1km from the top. That meant when his team mates dropped back, and now having returned to form on this race, Bennett made his way back into the main field.
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And while five of the breakaway survived out front to fight for the stage win, Bennett bossed the bunch kick for 6th place, with Pedersen - his main rival for the green jersey - placing 9th. That meant Bennett gain points on Pedersen on a day when the Dane would have hoped to make significant gains over the Irishman.
Bennett now leads the points classification with 142 points to 127 for Pedersen. And while the classification is a two-horse race at present, the general classification men will likely come into the reckoning later in the race unless a large number of breakaways succeed.
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In a clear sign Bennett is back in very good form generally - rather than only sprinting very well - he only got into troubled 1km from the top of he climb while Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was distanced almost immediately it began and Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) was gone more than 10km from the summit.
Today on the 190km stage 7 from Camargo to Cistierna the action out front was dominated by a six-rider breakaway. It featured Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), Harry Sweeny (Lotto Soudal), Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan), Jesús Herrada (Cofidis) and Omar Goldstein (Israel-Premier Tech).
While Goldstein was dropped, the others rode very well to hold off the peloton, though they had just 29 seconds on the line. While British rider Wright has been on fire this season, he again came up short of winning today; placing 3rd as Herrada won the day from Battistella after a 182km breakaway ride.
Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) retained his race lead ahead of a weekend of racing - with a brace of summit finishes - that will test his Grand Tour-winning credentials, not to mention his team.
