Sam Bennett had to settle for the runner-up spot on stage 3 of the Tour de France today as Caleb Ewan just pipped him on the line.
Deceuninck-QuickStep's Bennett looked like he had the victory in the bag after 198km of racing from Nice to Sisteron only for Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) to come through late like a train.
Carrick-on-Suir's Bennett shook his head in frustration as he crossed the line, but there was no arguing with the manner of Ewan's victory; the Australian coming from a long way back to win it.
Bennett's team was on the front all day as it was defending the yellow jersey of Julian Alaphilippe, who won the stage into Nice yesterday.
That scenario played into the hands of all of the sprinters as his team brought back all of the early breakaway men today to pave the way for a bunch sprint.
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The final dash to the line was quite messy and while Bennett found a relatively uncongested route to the line, Ewan was forced to weave his way through several riders.
Even though he had to contend with those late issues, the 25-year-old got up to Bennett, drew level and passed him all inside the last 100 metres to win by almost a bike length in the end and collect his fourth career Tour stage.
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Bennett adds his 2nd place today to the 4th placing he took on Saturday's opening stage into Nice, though he looked stronger today and will still be highly fancied to take a win before this race is out.
Ewan's win comes today after a troubled start to the 25-year-old team's race; John Degenkolb missing the time cut on the opening day and Philippe Gilbert crashing out of the race.
Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb) and Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) both finished in the bunch today, in 95th and 135th respectively.
In the sprint today Ewan and Bennett were a long way ahead of the rest and underlined their status as the fastest man in the race. Even new Italian and European champion Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT Pro Cycling) was off the pace in 3rd.
He was followed by Hugo Hofstetter (Israel Start-Up Nation), Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo), Cees Bol (Team Sunweb) and Matteo Trentin (CCC Team).
As the stage finished in a bunch sprint there was no change in the overall with Alaphilippe still in the yellow jersey.
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