The Tours of Qatar and Oman are next on Sam Bennett’s hit list and the Bora-Argon 18 man will know that if he’s to make it to the finish in the front group he’ll need to be wary of the splits that usually wreak havoc with these races. Above, far right, racing in Mallorca last week.
By Brian Canty
Sam Bennett’s next assignment is the six-day Tour of Qatar starting tomorrow, Sunday, and running until next Friday.
It’s a race he’s done twice in the past; last year with NetApp-Endura when he took three top 10s and back in 2011 with the An Post-Sean Kelly team.
He said his first ride in the race is one he will never forget.
“That was my first time ever in Qatar but I was after missing half a year with injury,” he explained.
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“I was only back training six or eight weeks so I got a little bit of a hiding.”
Bennett, right, wearing the young riders' classification leader's jersey at the Tour of Qatar 12 months ago; his first major race having moved up to the ProContinental ranks (Photo: Yophotos)
Indeed, he would finish second last overall, over 35 minutes down on winner Robert Gesink (Rabobank), having suffered in the crosswinds for much of the week.
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“Oh my God, I’ll never forget some of those stages,” he reflected.
“One in particular started at 80kph. I was at the back of each echelon and there were five or six of them; maybe even more.
“I was at the very back of the last one, it was flat out and I thought ‘we must surely be 20k in by now’.
“I looked up and saw ‘kilometre 0’. I knew it would be a hard day.”
Bennett will need to master the legendary crosswinds of Qatar if he is to have a chance at sprinting for the win during the coming week.
But with a far better showing last year where he had the distinction of wearing the young rider classification leader’s jersey after finishing 14th on the opening day, he has every right to be optimistic this time around.
He has already shown some good form in the early season exchanges, with two top 10s in the Mallorca Challenge series, the best of which was 4th in the Trofeo Playa de Palma last weekend.
Some of those he will face in the next week include; Tom Boonen (Etixx-Quick-Step), Marcel Kittel (Giant-Alpecin), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing), Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), Arnaud Démare (FDJ.fr), Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis), Theo Bos (MTN-Qhubeka), Andrea Guardini (Astana), and the recently crowned Australian champion Heinrich Haussler (IAM Cycling).
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