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Sam Bennett extended his lead in the green jersey with a three-day race for the Tour de France, as Michal Kwiatkowski won stage 18 on the 175km route from Meribel to La Roche-sur-Foron.
The Irish rider started the day 47 points ahead of his closest rival Peter Sagan, but the victory in the intermediate sprint brought that lead to 52 points, with Italian Matteo Trentin adrift 11 more points.
The only cause for concern was the time limit, but the 29-year-old came home in the last group 31 1/2 minutes less than Kwiatkowski, but well within the limit.
Kwiatkowski stepped over the line with teammate Richard Carapaz, who moved into the polka dot jersey, the Ineos duo were the last two survivors of what had been a 32-man getaway, with Ineos Grenadiers saving his career after the retirement of champion Egan Bernal. .
Carapaz had been battling Marc Hirschi of Team Sunweb for the mountain points as both riders looked to check out Tadej Pogacar in the category, but a Hirschi crash on a mid-stage descent put Carapaz in the driver’s seat , and now leads the category by two. Pogacar points.
The pair approached La Roche-sur-Foron in the middle of a deep conversation, patting each other on the back under the flamme rouge, before Kwiatkowski crossed the line first to give the former world champion his first stage victory in the Great Tour.
It means that Primoz Roglic has a 57-second lead over fellow Slovenian Tadej Pohocar in the yellow jersey, with Colombian Miguel Ángel López 30 seconds behind.
Dan Martin finished seven seconds ahead of Bennett and is 42nd overall, two hours 25 minutes behind Roglic in yellow.
Nicolas Roche of Team Sunweb finished the day less than 29 minutes behind the winner of the stage and is in position 62.
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