Bennett wins & loses Vuelta stage 9

//Bennett wins & loses Vuelta stage 9

Bennett wins & loses Vuelta stage 9

Bennett first, then not first

Argy bargy in Aguilar de Campoo.

Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) thought he’d pulled out his second stage in this year’s Vuelta a Espana after some aggressive maneuvering in the final kilometer. 

Sadly for the Irishman sprinter, he only succeeded in knocked himself off the podium. Judges relegated Bennett’s after reviewing his aggressive shoulder bumps of Emils Liepins (Trek-Segafredo). It seems that Liepins had disrupted the Deceuninck train and Bennett took matters into his down hands — or rather shoulder.

Instead Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) made the jump from second to first place thanks to Bennett bump. “I didn’t expect that because Sam was just in front. But when I saw the video behind, it wasn’t a fair action for him,”said Ackermann post-stage. Gerben Thijssen (Lotto Soudal)

and Max Kanter (Team Sunweb) rounded out the podium.

Bennett admitted that the final run to the line had been a fast and very physical affair. “We had to come from behind with speed and there was a big fight. Some guys nearly put us in the barriers trying to take the wheel which was a bit sketchy but we stayed upright,” said Bennett.

The real concern was keeping all the riders in the peloton upright.

“I think, after all the crashes in the last weeks, we have to take care about the other guys,” said Ackermann. “If there is no hole, we have to stop. I feel sorry for Sam, but they took me out in Scheldeprijs and now we have to ride more fair.”

Safety continues to be an issue that race organizers and the riders union struggle to solve. It’s a difficult task to enforce rules that are often unwritten and open to broad interpretation. Where is the unquestioned line between aggressive and argy bargy?

Nevertheless, Ackerman put the focus on his team’s efforts, not the shoulders and flying elbows. “We didn’t care about Quickstep, we decided to do our own thing. I’m really happy about this victory and also for my team, they did an awesome job today, they did it all from the front and I’m happy to give something back to them, he said. 

However, was a tough loss for Sam Bennett who in the mad rush to the finish line made the mistake of using his shoulder instead of his head. 

By |2020-10-30T12:02:06-07:00October 29th, 2020|Featured|0 Comments

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