Bennett, stripped of stage victory in the Vuelta

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Tour de France green jersey winner Sam Bennett was stripped of a second stage victory at the Tour of Spain after he was found guilty of ‘irregular sprinting’.

Bennett thought he had sealed his ninth Grand Tour stage win in total, a second at the Vuelta this year and two at Le Tour this year, two at the Vuelta last year and three at the Giro d’Italia last year. .

However, Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe) subsequently claimed the stage after stewards studied footage of Bennett hitting Emils Liepins (Trek-Segafredo) with his shoulder heading towards the final stage.

Bennett was relegated to last place.

Dan Martin finished in the group to retain third place overall, 28 seconds behind Richard Carapaz and 15 behind Primoz Roglic.

Patrick Lefevere, Bennett’s Deceuninck-Quick-Step team principal, raged against the decision on social media, but Ackermann felt justice had been served.

“It was not a fair action on his part [Bennett]”said the German.” I think after all the crashes in the last week, we have to take care of the other guys.

“I’m sorry for Sam, but now we have to run cleaner. I’m very happy for this win and also for my team, they did an incredible job today, they did everything from the front and I’m happy to give something back to them.”



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