Sam Bennett was inches from making history and becoming the first Irish rider to win back-to-back stages of the Tour de France, but in the end a second place finish on the 11th stage of Tour de France tightened his grip on the green jersey.
The Carrick-on-Suir rider was inches behind winner Caleb Ewan and green jersey rival Peter Sagan, one day after beating Ewan for his first stage in the world-renowned Grand Tour.
But commissaries reviewed the finale and relegated Sagan for shoving Jumbo-Visma's Wout van Aert out of the way, moving Bennett up to second. Van Aert was promoted to third.
That also shook up the points classification, with Bennett's points lead growing considerably to 68 points, rather than the 15 it would have been cut down to if Sagan's second place had stood.
Bennett now has 243 points with Sagan's demotion putting the Slovakian on 175.
France's Bryan Coquard is the closest points challenger behind Sagan on 157, two ahead of Ewan.
There was no change at the top of the general classification, with Slovenian Primoz Roglic of Jumbo-Visma continuing to lead from defending champion Egan Bernal of the Ineos Grenadiers.
Ireland's Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche finished 133rd and 138th respectively on stage 11.
Martin of the Israel Start-Up Nation team is consequently 64th in the general classification heading into stage 12, while Roche, who races for Team Sunweb, is 75th.
