Video: Sam Bennett's powerful finish just comes up short at Vuelta

The photo tells the story of the stage; Sam Bennett coming in ahead of the smiling Deceuninck-QuickStep who had just watched their team mate Rémi Cavagna take the victory seconds ahead of the peloton

Sam Bennett has been forced to play bridesmaid to Deceuninck-QuickStep for the second time at La Vuelta; the Irishman placing 2nd on today's stage into Toledo.

The Belgian WorldTour outfit had Rémi Cavagna up the road in the breakaway on stage 19.

And when the escape group split and all of them bar one was caught; Cavagna proved the man with the staying power.

He was just 5 seconds ahead of the front of the peloton on the finish line, where Sam Bennett monstered the sprint to take 2nd place.

In the closing stages Bora-hansgrohe worked hard in a bid to close down the lone man just up the road and set up Bennett for another win.

But while they almost did it, Cavagna survived to take his team's fourth stage victory of the race.

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Just as he had done when being beaten into 2nd place by Deceuninck-QuickStep's Philippe Gilbert on stage 17, Bennett put in a fantastic ride today.

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The run-in was so fast and undulating that the field split to pieces and some of the general classification men were in the top 10 in the bunch sprint.

But Bennett showed his worth; emerging best of the bunch in a roadman's finish but this time only getting to sprint for the runner-up spot.

The stage was marked by controversy when Movistar drove the bunch hard after race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma ) and 4th placed Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) were involved in a crash.

While both regained contact and lost no time today, there was a lot of criticism at what was seen as Movistar's unsporting actions.

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