By Shane Stokes
Sam Bennett may have missed out on a stage win in the Critérium du Dauphiné, crossing the line second on stage three before being relegated, but it appears that taking a victory in the race was not needed to secure Tour de France participation.
Last year the Carrick-on-Suir rider was unexpectedly left off the Bora-hansgrohe team, with he and Ryan Mullen passing up the chance to ride the national championships in the belief that they would be lining out in the Tour. However both were left surprised to learn they were not selected for the race, with Bora-hansgrohe instead going fully in behind a general classification challenge with Aleksandr Vlasov.
Bennett responded by going to the Vuelta with Mullen and taking two stage wins. He then exited the race due to Covid-19.
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There had been some uncertainty about this year’s Tour as he has just taken one win this year, sprinting to victory in his very first race of the season back in January. A number of near misses since then prompted many to think a stage win in the Dauphiné might be necessary to guarantee his place, but the team’s head of performance Dan Lorang has said this is not the case.
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“All is fine with Sam,” he told stickybottle this week. “When Sam stays healthy and will not have a big crack [drop in form] in the Dauphiné, he will be part of the Tour team.” Bennett and indeed Mullen have made it through the mountains and both finished the race yesterday.
Mullen is yet to make his debut in the Tour and will hope to be there as part of Bennett’s lead-out team. However Lorang said that no decision has been made as yet in relation to Mullen. It remains to be seen if he will be part of the squad when it lines out on stage one on July 1st.
Bennett has said several times this year that he believes his top form is coming. Speaking during the Tour de Hongrie on May 10th, he said the signs were good. “I changed the training a bit around five weeks ago and definitely can feel a difference already. I’m on the right direction and I’m very confident I’ll be back in top shape in a couple weeks’ time.”
The Dauphiné is his first race since then, but the undulating nature of the early stages complicated things for the sprinters and made it difficult to assess how he is going.
He will hope to be at 100 percent in the Tour, not least because he has not competed there since winning two stages plus the points classification in 2020.
