La Vuelta 2022: Sam Bennett beats Mads Pedersen to make it two stage wins in a row in thrilling sprint finish

Sam Bennett made it back-to-back stage wins at this year’s La Vuelta for Bora Hansgrohe, timing his sprint to perfection at the finish in Breda.

Bennett held off a charging Mads Pedersen (Trek–Sagafredo) for the second stage in a row, with Dan McLay (Arkea Samsic) also just missing out on the win.

Led out by his team, Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) went earliest in the sprint but his legs faded, and the German finished down in ninth. There were no accidents or mistakes from the general classification riders, which ensured they finished safely in the bunch.

The final stage in the Netherlands, before the Vuelta heads for Spain, offered the possibility of crosswinds, creating a nervous atmosphere in the peloton across its 193km duration.

Just as it didn't at the Tour of Denmark, the wind failed to blow in any direction that would cause real problems for the riders, though the teams navigated the route in a fashion that indicated they were keen to get it over with as quickly as possible.

The route, which began in the same town as it would finish, began by heading south out of Breda, before turning towards the east, straying briefly into Belgian, and following an anti-clockwise course.

Before the racing properly began, the riders passed through the town's gothic Grote Kerk church to pay tribute to those who have passed away from Covid-19, where race leader Mike Teunissen was invited to light a candle.

The breakaway established itself early. Thomas de Gendt (Lotto Soudal) was first to reveal intentions to make it up the road, hovering beside of the director's car before the flag had even dropped.

The Belgian made his move at the first opportunity, taking six riders, Pau Miquel (Equipo Kern Pharma), Julius van den Berg (EF Education Easy Post), Jan Bakelants (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert), Ander Okamika (Burgos BH), Jose Herrada (Cofidis) and Mikel Iturria (Euskaltel-Euskadi) with him.

The peloton had no complaints as to the make-up of the group, and the seven settled into an easy rhythm formed a strong selection that soon had more than a minute's advantage over the bunch. They weren't inclined to hang around. With barely 33km raced, less than 45 minutes into the stage, they had established a three minute lead, which was the most they would be permitted.

20km further on, on a wide, straight stretch of road, a seemingly innocuous coming together between Israel Premier Tech team-mates Mike Woods and Itamar Einhorn caused both to hit the deck. The Canadian appeared to cut his head and, despite briefly being granted permission to ride on, was forced to abandon La Vuelta soon after.

Halfway through the stage and the wind, which had barely bothered the peloton, began to pick up at least enough to force the GC teams to concentrate. Having largely deferred to the sprinter's squad at the front of the bunch up to that point, the likes of Jumbo Visma, Ineos Grenadiers and Bahrain Victorious suddenly moved up, shifting the shape of the peloton from a broad bulge to one which simultaneously sheltered their own and squeezed their rivals towards the gutter. That was exciting as it would get for the peloton, though.

The King of the Mountains sprint which came at Rijzendeweg, 133.8km into the stage, was most fiercely contested between De Gendt and incumbent Van den Berg.

Though barely more than a speedbump, at 400m and 3.7% average gradient, rise the Belgian seemed keen to demonstrate that he was still the boss of the breakaway. De Gendt made sure to come out on top to take the two points, forcing the Dutchman to settle for the remainder, which ensured he would carry the blue polka dots to Spain.

De Gendt ended his stage by taking maximum points in the intermediate sprint at Sint Willebrord, practically slamming on the breaks immediately after and drifting his way back to the fast approaching peloton.

The remaining six riders had only a handful of seconds advantage by this point. Even as the peloton eased off on the throttle slightly, careful not to catch the break too soon, the escapees knew their day was done.

Alpecin and Jumbo led the chase and caught the breakaway with 12km to go as the teams prepared for a bunch sprint. Most visibly keen to control the outcome were Alpecin Fenix, for Tim Merlier, UAE Team Emirates, who were hoping to deliver Pascal Ackermann to the line and Trek Segafredo, for whom Mads Pederson was eager to improve on second place the previous day.

UAE were, if anything too eager, burning matches on the run-in, as they did all the work for the other teams and forced Ackermann to sprint far sooner than he would have cared to. He could not sustain the length of sprint needed to produce a victory, and ended up way down in 9th place, with Sam Bennett's lead-out lieutenant right behind him.

Almost until the moment he was right at the front, Bennett had appeared to be much too far back to compete but sometime sprinter of note himself, Danny van Poppel, has twice now showed that he is transforming himself into a target man of the highest calibre.

Van Poppel sailed through the chaos with Bennett on his wheel, dropping the green jersey off with plenty of space and no more clear air in front of him than he would have wanted. A more difficult win than the day before, but an even more skilful one, showing he is only gaining confidence.

Pederson chose to stay on Bennett's wheel for the duration, and although he was again good for second, the Dane did not have the flat speed to overhaul the Irishman. McClay sprinted to a strong third place. Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) lost his chain with 300m to go but still managed to finish 6th.

Afterward Bennett was at pains to pay tribute to his team-mates:

“The boys, again, what can I say?" he said. "Jonas [Koch] riding all day, big thank you for the commitment, the boys looking after me in the bunch all day, getting me bottles. It wasn’t hard, watts-wise, but it was a really nervous day.

"Again the job they did in the final. Jonas even came back, did another turn. Ryan [Mullen] kept us up there, and then Danny. For it to happen two days in a row, it’s quite nice. This is confidence-boosting, for sure.”

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