The Albany Gazette - Sam Bennett at the double on the Vuelta

The Irishman, who also won the day before, tightened his hold on the Vuelta's sprint points green jersey by edging out Mads Pedersen and Dan McLay on the last of three days in the Netherlands.

Bennett left his rivals standing on Saturday, but on Sunday's longer home-straight used a bike throw at the line to grab his second win.

"It was a hard fight with some tough moments," said Bennett, whose fallow patch has been forgotten with two consecutive winning performances.

His winning time of 4hrs 05min 53sec means the peloton rode the stage at around 46kph despite some windy conditions on a cool summer's day at 20C.

Ineos had a stressful moment when their leader Richard Carapaz fell 20km from the line, but he finished with the main bunch.

Of the favourites to win the overall title Primoz Roglic of Jumbo is best placed with Carapaz just 13sec off the Slovenian's pace.

Remco Evenepoel, the 22-year-old Belgian, is at 14sec while the 2018 Vuelta champion Simon Yates is at 31sec and current Giro champion Jai Hindley at 41sec.

Dutch team Jumbo-Visma finished the stage with a third rider in the overall leader's red jersey with Italy's Eduardo Affini top of the rankings.

Jumbo won the team time-trial on day one by a clear 13sec, and with flat stages suited to bunch sprints over the weekend, were able to set up a situation whereby they passed the overall lead between their team members.

Two Dutch riders from Jumbo took the honours in the first two stages in Robert Gesink and Mike Teunissen.

Another Dutch rider Julius Van den Berg, retained the climb points jersey.

Now Affini takes the lead as the Vuelta heads home to Spain with a transit Monday and stage four to nine in the Basque Country and Asturias all in rugged hilly or mountainous terrain.

(B.Hartmann--BBZ)