Sam Bennett has come through his first assignments in great physical and mental form and, crucially, having won the full support and confidence of his new employer's.
Sam Bennett has rounded out the first part of his journey into the Pro Continental ranks with a 3rd place in the Tour of Oman and having left his team ultra confident in placing their confidence in a young rider with the speed to challenge for big wins and whose condition and recovery rate appears to be better than ever.
Far from fading towards the end of two weeks of racing in the tours of Qatar the week before last and Oman which finished yesterday, Bennett regrouped after the queen stage in Qatar on Saturday to save the best until last when he barrelled home for a podium place in 3rd spot yesterday.
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It was his best in a string of top 10 results in the past couple of weeks and firmly establishes him as a leader in the eyes of NetApp-Endura management, a vital development so early in his tenure with the squad.
Team directeur Enrico Poitschke confirmed in his post race comments that yesterday’s stage was all about the young Irish man from the start of the 146.5km stage 6 between As Sifah and Matrah Corniche.
“We held back for the entire stage to completely focus on the final stretch for Sam,” Poitschke said.
“The entire team prepared the sprint very well. We can be very satisfied with a third place finish given the line-up in this race. It is a redeeming result given our bad luck yesterday.”
He added but for Leo König suffering a mechanical and being forced to change wheel on the early slopes of the final climb to the finish atop Green Mountain on Saturday, the team would have secured a top 10 overall result, which was their pre race aim for the general classification.
However, yesterday’s podium spot for Bennett went a long way to making up for that disappointment when the former An Post-Chainreaction rider was bested by only Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) and Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) in the dash to the line after the early escapes, the main one including Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo), had been swept up.
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“I’m very satisfied with our team’s performance,” said Poitschke.
“We wanted to get Sam or Zak (Dempster) on the podium, and we did that today. Each day we noticed that we were getting very close. This means that we are in good shape and can be optimistic about our upcoming races.”
Bennett was full of praise for the team.
“The guys did a great job minding me in the stage. Bartosz (Huzarski) got me over the main climb of the day in the second group. The rest of the guys helped in the final 15km to get me up to the front.
“Then Zak again did a fantastic job bringing me in a good position inside 500m. It’s great to have a wheel like that, that you can trust. I would have liked to have gone just before 200m but the opportunity didn't come until 175-150m so it was never going to be possible to make that ground up.
“Griepel started the sprint. I think I was two places back. I felt strong enough to go before the 200m mark but there was a guy in the way. I think I was gaining in the end but I think when you’re strong enough you’re always in the right position. So maybe I need to get a little bit stronger.”
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