Just as his form was coming good after a very difficult few months and with the World Championships for fastmen just around the corner, Sam Bennett has fallen ill (Photo: Sirotti)
Sam Bennett’s was unable to start today’s GP Bruno Beghelli (1.HC) in Italy after coming down with a bout of bronchitis this week.
The Carrick man returned to winning ways on Wednesday at the Giro delle Toscana after a luckless summer - but that bad luck has returned once more.
His Bora-Argon 18 team had him down to start this afternoon’s race but withdrew him from the roster at late notice.
They were forced to start with just seven instead of eight because of Bennett’s forced exclusion.
“It was another tough day for us,” said sport director Andre Schulze.
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“Because of illness our leader, Sam wasn’t able to start the race today. The crashes in the final decided the race.
“We tried with the other teams in the group behind to catch the leaders but the guys in front of the race were too strong, so we could not fight for the victory.”
Bennett raced yesterday's Giro dell Emilia (1.HC) but was listed as a non-finisher after withdrawing during the hilly 213-kilometre contest.
It is unclear if he came down with something overnight or went into that race with an undetected condition.
Either way, he will be laid low for a while and his immediate race programme will most likely take a hit.
With the UCI World Championships his major target on October 16th it's not an ideal time to become ill but given he appears to be on top of his form at least he has that to keep his morale high.
We'll keep you up to date as we receive news.
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