Martyn Irvine's (front, right) UnitedHealthcare squad will join Sam Bennett's NetApp Endura team on the start line of Paris-Roubaix this year.
By Gerard Cromwell
Sam Bennett and Martyn Irvine could be ligning up alongside compatriots Nicolas Roche, Philip Deignan and Dan Martin at some of the world’s biggest one day races this year as the NetApp Endura and UnitedHealthcare teams were both given wildcards to some more of the sport’s big classics today.
Having already been awarded places at Milan-San Remo, Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of Lombardy, Bennett’s NetApp Endura squad will compete in the cobbled classic Paris-Roubaix for the fourth time and the hilly one-day Belgian classic Fleche-Wallone for the first time.
“Both wildcards are especially important for us,” said NetApp boss Ralph Denk.
“Roubaix is the most famous spring classic race in France and starting there is a highlight on every rider’s palmarès. This year our selection will account for the fact that the Tour de France will cover some of the cobblestone sections”.
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“We will be celebrating our premiere in Liège. I am proud to have this race on our schedule for the first time.
"An entirely different kind of rider is needed in the Ardennes. Riders will have to tackle an elevation of 5,000 meters, which is geared more towards our climbing specialists.
"We have great respect for the race. So as not to demand too much from our young riders, we have decided to focus only on this one classic race in the Ardennes.”
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Irvine’s UnitedHealthcare squad will ride Milan-San Remo in Italy and E3 Harelbeke in Belgium with today’s announcement adding Paris-Roubaix and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, which was won by Dan Martin last year, to that schedule.
Although neither team have announced their selections for the events yet, it is hoped both Irvine and Bennett will get the chance to ride one of the big monuments of the sport this season.
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Irvine is currently riding the World Track Championships in Colombia. Last night he won a silver medal in the scratch race and earlier was 12th in the qualifiers of the pursuit.
He still has the points race to come and while he is clearly in great form, his focus has all been about the track in recent months. A period of readjustment to the road will be needed before he tackles anything major, though the transition does not normally take long for him.
Bennett on the other had is a purely road rider and having scored a string of top 10 placings in the Tour of Qatar and Tour of Oman - including 3rd place in the sprint finish that settled the final stage in Oman. He will definitely make the NetApp-Endura line-up for some of the major races they have now secured invites for and will most likely enjoyed protected rider status in some of them.
Sam Bennett has already mixed it with, and beaten, some the fastest riders in the world during the opening weeks of his tenure in NetApp-Endura. He now looks bound for the spring classics.
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