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Sam Bennett came within inches of making history and becoming the first Irish rider to win back-to-back stages of the Tour de France, but in the end, a second-place finish on stage 11 of the Tour de France tightened his grip on the green jersey. .
The Carrick-on-Suir rider was inches from winner Caleb Ewan and green jersey rival Peter Sagan, a day after beating Ewan on his first leg of the world-famous Grand Tour.
But the stewards reviewed the final and relegated Sagan for pushing Jumbo-Visma’s Wout van Aert out of the way, moving Bennett to second place. Van Aert was promoted to third.
That shook up the points standings too, with Bennett’s point lead growing sharply to 68 points, up from the 15 it would have shrunk to if Sagan’s second place had held.
Bennett now has 243 points with Sagan’s demotion placing the Slovak at 175.
Frenchman Bryan Coquard is the closest points challenger behind Sagan at 157, two ahead of Ewan.
There was no change at the top of the overall standings, with Slovenian Primoz Roglic from Jumbo-Visma continuing to lead defending champion Egan Bernal from Ineos Grenadiers.
Irishmen Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche finished 133rd and 138th respectively on stage 11.
Martin of Team Israel Start-Up Nation is ranked 64th overall heading into stage 12, while Roche, who runs for Team Sunweb, is ranked 75th.
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