Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) has missed out on his second win of the 2023 season after Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) attacked solo in the final kilometre to win stage 3 of Vuelta a San Juan Internacional (2.Pro) in Argentina.
Simmons accelerated hard to win in what was a chaotic finale to the 170.9km stage, which started and finishing at the Autodrómo de Villicum motor racing circuit.
Soudal-QuickStep was once again to the fore trying to set up its sprinter, and yesterday's stage winner, Fabio Jakobsen, after a late solo effort by Simone Bevilacqua (EOLO-Kometa) was swept up on the finishing circuit.
However, while world champion Remco Evenepoel tried to string out the front of the bunch for Jakobsen, the bunch scattered wildly across the wide track and, in the chaos, Simmons stepped up to take his chance.
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When he made his move deep inside on the final kilometre he opened a decent gap off the front as one of Bennett's team mates hesitated and swung over, in a rare mistake that effectively handed Simmons further advantage.
And though the finishing straight was slightly uphill, American rider Simmons (21) had the legs to hold off the sprinters, who were rapidly closing in on him all the way to the chequered flag.
Maximiliano Richeze (Argentina) was the first to respond when Simmons attacked but he simply did not have the legs to get onto his wheel. Richeze continued with his effort all the way to the line and just about held on for 2nd place, with Bennett fastest of the bunch but having to settle for 3rd today.
Bennett closed very rapidly on both Richeze and Simmons but ran out of road to overtake them. Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) was 4th with Giacomo Nizzolo (Israel-Premier Tech) 5th and Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies) in 6th.
Bennett took a time bonus for 3rd place and so holds the race lead going into tomorrow's stage 4. Jakobsen, who did not feature in the final sprint today, is now 2nd at six seconds while Gaviria is 3rd overall at eight seconds.
While Bennett's sprint was a little underwhelming yesterday, as he faded from a potentially race-winning position in the final sprint to 4th place, he looked very strong and fast today. The Irish rider was by far the best of the fast men today and was only scuppered by the brave duo who took the initiative to outwit the sprinters.
More to come.
