Sam Bennett dramatically denied at Vuelta but Nicolas Roche still on top

*That's how close it was, 22-year-old Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) just edging out Bora-hansgrohe's Sam Bennett*

Sam Bennett was just denied victory on stage 4 of La Vuelta; losing his lead-out train late but still coming through so strongly.

However, while the Irish cyclist was by far the fastest
in the sprint, he came from too far back.

The Bora-hansgrohe man went around a roundabout the long way with about 1km to go into El Puig.

That cost him vital places at the head of the bunch, and
from that point he was fighting back.

However, Bennett weaved his way through the traffic, and managed to get on the wheel of young Dutch national champion Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep).

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The Irishman came off his Dutch rival’s wheel and while he had the measure of Jakobsen he had left himself with too much to do and ran out of road.

Bennett lunged for the line and very nearly took Jakobsen at the death, though the Dutch rider just got the verdict by the width of a tyre.

Rémi Cavagna attacked for Deceuninck-QuickStep in the final kilometres and that forced Bennett's team to chase, handing the advantage to the Belgian outfit.

Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb) enjoyed another day in the
race lead and he retains his position at the head of the standings going into
tomorrow’s hillier stage 5.