Sam Bennett has had a mixed season to date with the highlight being this win in the Criterium International in late March. The Bora-Argon 18 man heads into the Criterium du Dauphiné this Sunday with his eyes fixed firmly on more glory.
Sam Bennett will make his debut in the Criterium du Dauphiné this Sunday when the races kicks off with a four-kilometre prologue by the shores of Lake Geneva.
The Bora-Argon 18 man is coming into it on the back of the Belgium Tour last weekend where he crashed on the opening road stage and battled through the remaining two days.
Aside from that, it’s been a good year for Bennett who won the opening stage of Critérium International in March and followed it up with 12th at Scheldeprijs a week later, though he will want more.
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He returned to his base in Monaco at the beginning May where he took a short break before ramping up the training again.
He’s already racked up 30 race days so that short break wasn’t unnecessary but this next week promises to be a real test of where he’s at now.
The Dauphiné is always stacked full of top GC riders, many of whom are putting the final touches on preparation for the Tour de France which starts in a month.
Bennett is in line for the race’s Grand Depart for the second year in-a-row and will be using this week to get some hard racing into his legs while hopefully challenging for a stage.
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As always, the race is heavy on climbs and of the eight stages, only three are really suitable for Bennett, those being Monday’s opening road stage, Wednesday as well as Thursday.
Of concern to Bennett will be the fast men and Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin), Jens Debusschere (Lotto-Soudal) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) should all be there or thereabouts in the final.
However, it definitely lacks the depth of a Tour field in terms of pure sprinters and if Bennett is going well – and has his leadout train in working order, he has every right to be confident of making the podium.
On the days where Bennett will most likely pull the plug and ride home in the grupetto, fellow Irishman Dan Martin of Etixx-QuickStep could be at the other end animating things.
He hasn’t raced since Liege-Bastogne-Liege but comes in as one of his team’s main general classification riders along with Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe.
They are turning into a really good partnership in the same way Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana have at Movistar and should challenge for stages, if not the overall.
Stages five and six are both summit finishes and will be where the race will most likely be won and lost.
Martin was right up there contending for it last year only for an untimely puncture which saw him lose time, though he finished a superb seventh overall after three top-10 finishes.
Some of those names who will challenge for the overall are Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale), Chris Froome (Team Sky), Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Fabio Aru (Astana) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ).
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