Sam Bennett has extended his lead in the race for the green jersey by winning today’s intermediate sprint on the Tour de France.
The Carrick-on-Suir rider took a maximum 20-points at Aime, with nearest challenger Peter Sagan (Bora Hansgrohe) third.
Matteo Trentin (CCC) continues to hover dangerously. The Italian was second behind Bennett, taking 17-points in the process.
With just three stages of Le Tour remaining, the Deceuninck Quick-Step sprinter sits on 298 points, 52 clear of Sagan and 63 ahead of Trentin.
YESSS ráib idirmheánach buaite ag Sam Bennett!! 🚴♂️💨🔥
20 pointe do @Sammmy_Be 🤩 💪
Sam extends his lead in the battle for the geansaí uaine 💚 🇮🇪 💚#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/LpwinTKdlc— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) September 17, 2020
The stage itself was won by Michal Kwiatkowski, who crossed the line in La Roche-sur-Foron arm-in-arm with his INEOS Grenadiers teammate Richard Carapaz.
The win is vindication for INEOS, who have been criticised by former Tour winner Bradley Wiggins for this year's performance.
Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma) retains the overall leader's yellow jersey, and keeps his 57-second lead over his fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates).
Having come home over 30-minutes behind the peloton, Bennett and co will need to recover quickly for a 19th stage that could go some way to determining the final destination of that green jersey.
A predominantly flat stage is punctuated by an intermediate spring at Mournans, with a sprint finish not out of the question at Champagnole.
Saturday's stage is an individual time trial, before the ceremonial finish on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday.
