Sam Bennett has said he would be immensely proud to make it to Paris on Sunday given what he has had to battle through. (Photos courtesy of Bora-Argon 18 Facebook page)
By Brian Canty
Sam Bennett has admitted he hates being the last man on general classification at the Tour de France and should he make it to Paris on Sunday his GC position is unlikely to improve before then.
Speaking on the race’s second and final rest day before the remaining five stages, the Bora-Argon 18 man said it would make him immensely proud if he did complete the Tour.
And if nothing else; the experience, the suffering and the training will stand to him.
Bennett limps home in bits at the end of stage 1. The Tour was always going to be a battle for him after that.
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“I hate it because I have no choice but to be here,” Bennett said of his current position on GC.
“If I was healthy and I was just being a bit lazy I’d embrace it but at the moment I'm being forced into it and I don't like it.
“I'm tired,” he continued. “I thought I’d recover a bit after the accident but I just get more and more fatigued.
“I've recovered from the injury but that has made me fatigued so I'm not back to where I want to be.”
Bennett in the yellow jersey during the stage 2 time trial at the Critérium International in Corsica, courtesy of his victory on stage 1 back in March. His Tour has been especially frustrating because with a clear run to the line on the sprinters' stages he could have done very well.
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Bennett has had a very tough time since coming down in a crash in the bunch sprint on the opening stage. He cut his hand to pieces and broke his finger; the latter not picked up on X-ray until a week after he sustained the fracture.
And his troubled Tour follows his falling ill in the lead up to his debut outing in the race last year which he was forced to abandon.
It's a shame as he is one of the best sprinters in the world and would very likely have made the podium at some stage, and may even have nicked a stage had everything gone his way.
“I knew my chances were gone then,” he said of the crash on the first stage last Saturday fortnight at Utah Beach.
With some of the Irish at the Tour, including well known cycling photograper Brendan Slattery, far left.
“I tried to stay positive and thought I could be better after the first rest day, but I didn’t come good again.
“It's annoying because last year it didn’t really work out and this year I’m in the same boat. I wanted to go home but then I'd have got nothing from the race. I might as well get some strength from it.”
Though the final day is always a sprint - and his chances of a result were boosted today with the news Mark Cavendish has pulled out of the race, he’s not sure what kind of shape he’ll be in on Sunday, if he gets that far.
“I'd be proud to finish the Tour because it was a lot of bad luck and I fought through it," he told Press Association Sport.
“Every experience is an experience you can learn from and take something from.”
Bennett has maintained his spirits in the face of being dealt a terrible hand; this wheelie on the Tourmalet a mark of his attitude.
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