George Bennett had nothing but praise for his three teammates' determination to bring home an overly large mass breakaway in stage 11 of the Vuelta a España, but he could not hide his frustration either, at being unable to go for the win.
The 38-man move on stage 11 across the hills of southern Galicia contained no less than four representatives from Israel-Premier Tech: Bennett, Marco Frigo, Matthew Riccitello, and Corbin Strong.
As the only team with so many riders, it naturally fell to Israel-Premier Tech to do the bulk of the work and close down the gaps. But as Bennett put it, the four were battling against considerable opposition, even inside the break itself and not just from the chasing pack behind.
Part of the problem was Bennett's strong Vuelta a España GC position, and by the end of the day with a 4:04 advantage on race leader Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), the New Zealander moved up to tenth overall. But as he told reporters afterwards, his main goal had been a stage win, and despite his teammates' best efforts, that failed to work out.
"We wanted the stage, I thought I had it all lined up, and then [stage winner] Eddie (Dunbar, Jayco-AIUIa) went, it just got so close," Bennett said about Dunbar's last kilometre attack, anticipating a sprint. "What Eddie did was exactly what I was trying to do, and he just did it so well.
"I'm really disappointed because you saw how well the boys were going. [Teammate Marco] Frigo - it's hard to explain how strong that guy is, he was pulling that whole break, I'd say he did 98% of that. He was so fast, when I was on the wheels I was just dying.
"Corbin and Matthew also - they all did so much for me, even when a little group went away before the climb, they pulled so fast on the climb that we just got back to it. So I can't help but feel disappointed right now."
Bennett said that despite there being so many riders in the break - or perhaps in part because of that, with so many different interests - it was virtually impossible to get any real momentum going. Then with Bennett present, as a GC threat, nobody but Israel-Premier Tech wanted the break to gain too much time.
"It was horrible, no one helped us. I think no-one had GC guys there apart from us, so we were the only ones that… in fact it was the opposite, lot of guys had GC riders in the peloton and they were actively slowing it down," Bennett explained.
"It was a horrible dynamic, the whole group was a shithouse, if it wasn't for Corbin, Marco and Matthew, we probably wouldn't have stayed away."
Stay away they did, though, and when the dust settled Bennett did not win the stage, but his twelfth place and major time gain of 4:04 allowed him to ease back into the top ten, in tenth spot at 5:46.
But if Bennett's last top ten Grand Tour placing dates back to 2018 and eighth overall in the Giro d'Italia, the New Zealand veteran said that his main goal remains elsewhere in the Vuelta a España - and after the enormous disappointment of Wednesday's finale, arguably even more so.
"It'd be really cool to finish top ten, I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up at it. But I'd much rather be going for a stage, I've never won one," Bennett said. "So I'll be looking for more opportunities to get one in the next ten days."
