• Irish rider edges out Elia Viviani in sprint into Praia a Mare • Britain’s Yates retains overall lead after uneventful ride

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Sam Bennett timed his sprint to perfection to win the seventh stage of the Giro d’Italia, while Simon Yates remained in the overall lead as the race arrived on the Italian mainland on Friday.

Bennett was the last to launch his sprint but the Irish rider managed to edge out Elia Viviani, who had won two of the opening three stages and claim his first win in a Grand Tour.

Niccolo Bonifazio was third in the bunch sprint at the end of the flat 159km (99 mile) route along the Calabrian coast from Pizzo to Praia a Mare.

“I’m really happy with that,” said Bennett, who had finished third in each of Viviani’s wins so far in the race. “I tried so hard the other days to get the win but never seemed to get the timing right.

“It was very hard to get Viviani’s wheel, everyone wanted that wheel and we had to fight for it. At one point I thought we’d left it too late but the timing was right and I could use my power to get an advantage. The team did a fantastic job and I want to thank everyone who helped me get to this point.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Joy for Sam Bennett. Photograph: Daniel Dal Zennaro/EPA

There was an early break of three riders. The peloton allowed Davide Ballerini, Markel Irizar and Maxim Belkov an advantage of more than four minutes before it began to reel them in. They were caught with 14km remaining as the peloton powered to the sprint finish and victory for Bennett and his Bora-Hansgrohe team.

The general classification was unchanged and Yates, who won the young rider classification at last year’s Tour de France, retained his 16 second advantage over the defending champion, Tom Dumoulin.

Yates’ Mitchelton-Scott team-mate Esteban Chaves remained third overall, 26 seconds behind the 25-year-old.

The four-times Tour de France winner Chris Froome is eighth, one minute and 10 seconds back.

Saturday’s eighth stage sees the second mountain finish at the end of a 209km stage from Praia a Mare to Montevergine.

Overall standings

1 Simon Yates (GB) Mitchelton-Scott; 2 Tom Dumoulin (Neth) Team Sunweb, at 16s; 3 Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott, at 26s; 4 Domenico Pozzovivo (It) Bahrain-Merida, at 43s; 5 Thibaut Pinot (Fr) Groupama-FDJ, at 45s; 6 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team, at 53s; 7 Pello Bilbao (Sp) Astana Pro Team, at 1-03; 8 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, at 1-10; 9 George Bennett (NZ) LottoNL-Jumbo, at 1-11; 10 Fabio Aru (It) UAE Team Emirates, at 1-12