Illness meant Sam Bennett had a testing time at the Tour of Britain, but he seems to have plenty of races left, including Paris-Tours, to try and take something from his end of season.
Sam Bennett's Tour of Britain Diary
Saturday, September 13th, Stage 7: Camberley - Brighton (225.1km)
After a sleepless night last night, almost as soon as I woke up this morning, I knew in my heart and soul that I wouldn’t be starting today’s stage.
Even though I was in bits, I rationalised that you always feel a little bit worse first thing in the morning, so I gave it an hour or so before making any decisions.
After breakfast I was tempted to go to the start with the lads, hoping the 100km journey would somehow magically bring me back to full health but after a check up with the team doctor before they left, I knew I would be wasting my time.
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So as the lads hopped on the team bus, I turned around and headed back to my room with some medicine for my throat.
Luckily, we’re staying in the same hotel tonight, so I didn’t have to pack up and travel anywhere and was able to stay in bed all day instead.
It’s been a hard week and despite starting off pretty well with 12th and 3rd on the first two stages, every day I’ve been going deeper and deeper into my reserves and I was so tired today that I spent much of the day either asleep or simply lying on my bed.
The Tour of Britain and Arctic Race of Norway did not go according to plan, with Bennett looking for stage wins from both.
Although I would have liked to know how the lads were getting on, I didn’t get to see any of the race on TV as I didn’t have the right channel in the room.
Even though I was disappointed at not being able to finish the Tour of Britain this year, I know that if had tried to keep struggling through and put myself into the red even more it could have seen me end my season early.
If I’m forced to go on antibiotics next week, which hopefully I won’t be now, then that would set me back two weeks or so and there’s not much racing left as it is.
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On Monday I fly back to Belgium and have a one day race, the GP Van Petegem, there a week from now.
Ideally, I will take three days off, recover and be back in time for that but if my throat infection goes to my chest then obviously I won’t ride.
I know hindsight is 20/20 but when I got sick after the Arctic Tour of Norway, I realise now that I panicked a little bit to try and be ready for this Tour of Britain.
To get some racing in my legs before coming here, I rode a pro kermesse in Belgium before I was properly recovered. I then tried to recover for another one but went too deep in that too and came here teetering on a fine line between coming into form and relapsing.
For the first time this year, I’ve been chasing form the past few weeks instead of trying to stay staying healthy and I ended up getting nothing out of it, or at least not as much as I’d hoped for.
When I started off this diary last week, I had high hopes of a stage win here and thought it would be a much different story than it has been but the positive reactions and messages of support over the past few days have spurred me on and kept me going.
With my season continuing until Paris-Tours on October 12, I still have a nice little bit of racing left and if I can get healthy again I can hopefully get a good result somewhere along the line.
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