He's felt like he was banging his head against a wall at times this year due to bad luck and injury, but Sam Bennett has said his morale has had a big boost as the countdown to the world championships continues.
Bennett took a fine win on the second and final stage of the Giro della Toscana on Wednesday, beating Tour de France sprint king Mark Cavendish into second place. He had also outsprinted Cavendish on Tuesday's opening stage, although with four riders up the road he had to be content with fifth then.
Cavendish took four stages in this year’s Tour, bringing his career total to 30. As arguably the sport’s greatest-ever sprinter, it was a huge scalp for Bennett to take.
However, given that he wants to achieve more before the end of the season, the celebrations were muted.
“I suppose I put so much pressure on myself I just felt relief,” Bennett told the Irish Times.
“The team [Bora-Argon 18] are pretty happy. I have had a lot of bad luck this year. I started the season strong and then from Tirreno-Adriatico [in March] a number of things kept happening.
“I am finally back to normal now and I can sprint again. It is good to be able to do that. I was starting to lose confidence in my ability but today shows that I can do it. And if I have a full leadout train, there is potential for more.”
Damaged hand
The bad luck that Bennett refers to includes his crash on day one of the Tour de France, a fall which sliced his hand open and exposed a bone. He struggled through a Tour he had worked hard for, having to be satisfied with ninth and twelfth on stages rather than having the form and confidence to chase a stage win.
Deep fatigue after the Tour led to a gradual rebuilding of form and, this week, he finally got back to where he wants to be.
Bennett has a solid programme of racing prior to next month’s world championships. Most years the worlds are held on undulating courses which hamper the sprinters, but this time around the Qatar venue means it will be pan flat.
Bennett has triumphed in Doha in the past, winning the final stage of the 2015 Tour of Qatar, and is one of those with the speed to chase a medal.
However he’s under no illusions at this point in time, realising that his relative inexperience means others will be more highly tipped.
“It is the world championships, I don’t really know what I can do,” he admitted. “There will be ten, fifteen world class sprinters. I think I can be confident when there are one or two there. But the stakes are going to be super high. Then again, they are not going to have the normal teams backing them.
“I performed well in Qatar at the start of the year. I know the race. I just want to be there in the final. Then we’ll see.”
