Ireland’s Sam Bennett made it back-to-back stage wins in the 2022 Vuelta a Espana with victory in Sunday’s third stage.
The Bora-Hansgrohe rider made his move in a sprint finish to beat Mads Pedersen for the second day in a row, with Britain’s Dan McLay third.
Jumbo-Visma rider Edoardo Affini took the leader’s red jersey from team-mate Mike Teunissen.
The 193.2km stage started and finished in the Dutch city of Breda.
It is the last of the three stages to be held in the Netherlands, before the race moves to Spain on Tuesday.
Bennett paid tribute to the efforts of his team-mate Danny van Poppel who guided him to the line.
“It was quite hard because a lot of people were fighting for our wheel,” said Bennett, who leads the green jersey race on 117 points to Pedersen’s 80.
“It was just the natural flow that people went up the side and squeezed me off, so there were a few tough moments to hold Danny’s wheel. It was a hard fight.”
Sunday’s stage was largely uneventful except for a crash for general classification favourite Richard Carapaz with around 18km to go. The Olympic road race champion was brought back to the peloton by his team-mates.
Stage three result
1. Sam Bennett (Ire/Bora-Hansgrohe) 4hrs 5mins 53secs
2. Mads Pedersen (Den/Trek-Segafredo) Same time
3. Daniel McLay (GB/Team Arkea-Samsic) Same time
4. Bryan Coquard (Fra/Cofidis) Same time
5. Fabian Lienhard (Sui/Groupama-FDJ) Same time
6. Tim Merlier (Bel/Alpecin-Deceuninck) Same time
7. Kaden Groves (Aus/Team BikeExchange-Jayco) Same time
8. Cedric Beullens (Bel/Lotto-Soudal) Same time
9. Pascal Ackermann (Ger/UAE Team Emirates) Same time
10. Danny van Poppel (Ned/Bora-Hansgrohe) Same time
Overall standings
Overall leaders
1. Edoardo Affini (Ita/Jumbo-Visma) 8hrs 20mins 07secs
2. Sam Oomen (Ned/Jumbo-Visma) Same time
3. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Jumbo-Visma) Same time
4. Sepp Kuss (US/Jumbo-Visma) Same time
5. Mike Teunissen (Ned/Jumbo-Visma) Same time
6. Robert Gesink (Ned/Jumbo-Visma) Same time
7. Ethan Hayter (GB/Ineos) +13secs
8. Richard Carapaz (Ecu/Ineos) Same time
9. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa/Ineos) Same time
10. Pavel Sivakov (Fra/Ineos) Same time
