Sam Bennett's incredible year continued with victory on stage 4 of the Vuelta a Espana.
The Tour de France green jersey-winner claimed the stage in a sprint finish to Ejea de los Caballeros.
Bennett's eighth Grand Tour stage win came by pipping Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates), Jakub Mareczko (CCC Team) and Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) to the line.
The Carrick-on-Suir man's success means Ireland claimed back-to-back wins on the Vuelta, following Dan Martin's success on Thursday.
Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo Visma) retains the overall race leader's red jersey, 5-seconds ahead of Martin.
Martin retains the green points jersey, even though Roglic also leads that standing by 8-points.
Whoosh 💨 @Sammmy_Be 🏅@deceuninck_qst #LaVuelta20 pic.twitter.com/9wHRdDpDvC
— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) October 23, 2020
"It was so fast on the run-in," Bennett said afterwards, "[I] was a bit nervous... a fast old day but I was just a bit nervous like, it was a bit sketchy.
"Then in the final [few metres], we weren't all together yet. We said 'We need to be together' at one point, and at that point the [Deceuninck Quick-Step] team was all there so they did their job perfectly, they came together when we needed to - even more than we asked.
"We only asked a few guys to be there, and the whole team was there to support. I want to thank all the guys, they did an absolutely fantastic job."
Bennett says the integrity of the road surface almost cost him victory to Philipsen, "We kind of eased up a little bit, because we thought maybe we'd be lined-out.
"When we went into the last left-hander, it looked a bit dirty so we weren't sure about how much grip there was.
"I could see I was after passing 300m to go, and I wanted to go [to] the outside, and then I wasn't sure if I'd keep it upright.
"Then Jasper Philipsen came up the inside, and got such a jump I actually really didn't think I was going to catch him.
"Yeah in the end, I started getting more and more speed... and I was still accelerating to the line so I had the power. But when he initially went, he was so explosive out of the corner I didn't know if I could catch him."
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