Aguilar de Campóo (Spain) (AFP)
The Irishman Sam Bennett was downgraded after a sprint deemed illegal, giving the victory to the German Pascal Ackermann on Thursday in Aguilar de Campoo (north-west) during the 9th stage of the Tour of Spain cycling, still dominated by the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz.
Bennett (Deceuninck) had beaten Ackermann (Bora-Hansrohe) and the Belgian Gerben Thijssen (Lotto Soudal) at the finish line of this plain stage in Castile-and-León.
But after viewing the video images, the judges of the Vuelta decided to downgrade the Irishman.
In this Vuelta which has not left much room for the sprinters for the moment, only the Irishman, imperial without this shoulder, had already won a sprint stage, the 4th, last Friday.
The 9th stage (157.7 km) was essentially calm, only animated by a long break from two Spaniards, Aritz Bagües (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Juan Felipe Osorio (Burgos-BH), mastered throughout by the peloton. and resumption 22 km from the term.
In the general classification, Carapaz (Ineos) is still 13 seconds ahead of Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), who celebrated his 31st birthday on Thursday.
© 2020 AFP