Sam Bennett has one Rás stage win under his belt, came close a few times last year and is looking for more wins in the 2013 edition starting on Sunday
By Brian Canty
It’s almost two years since Sam Bennett last crossed the finish line in first place but the talented Carrick-on-Suir 22-year-old is in good enough shape to end that drought in the An Post Rás next week.
Last a winner in July 2011, it’s a long time to be waiting for a victory and Bennett knows it’s time for another. But he also knows the power is there and feels it’s just about getting that bit of luck now.
“It is what it is,” the An Post-Chainreaction man says of his form.
“It’s on and off, whether I feel good or bad. But whenever I go to ‘go’ in races it’s there, so it’s good enough I hope.”
Advertisement
Bennett was fifth in a pro kermesse race in Belgium on Wednesday night and says he’s itching to get going on Sunday in Dunboyne.
“It’s always nice to come home and race at home. It looks like a good line-up as well this year so it should be hard. It’ll be interesting. But every one of us in the team are capable of winning stages and even winning it overall. So we can definitely take something away from the week, which is great, and hopefully we will.”
On his own chances of landing what would be his second stage win in the race, having taken one back in 2009, he says: “I’ll take it day by day; roads in Ireland - there’s never really any that are for complete climbers - so once you’re strong you’ll get over them. I’ll take it day by day and whatever I can take out of each day I will. If I can get stages I will, if I can get a jersey, I’ll take a jersey. You don’t know what’s going to come in your path so you have to see how it pans out.”
Switching coaches recently is a move he hopes can pay dividends. But because that change only took place in the last week, any benefits are unlikely to be seen on the Rás. Bennett will now be advised by Neal Henderson, who coaches BMC star Taylor Phinney, amongst others.
“I only changed this week so we’ve only just started working together. It’s great, I love working with power and he seems very detailed and precise so we’ll see how that goes. There’s nothing going to change in my form the week before a Rás,” he reasons.
Related News
It’s slight changes in his programme he’s after, and he sees them already
“Even on easy days or the day after a race Neal has me doing two small sessions with a lot of detailed efforts in it, which is cool. So I can’t wait to see what it’s going to amount to when I have to do hard work. So it’s really interesting; every morning I get up, I open up my training peaks and there’s a new session there ready and waiting."
He had been coached long term by Irish manager Martin O’Loughlin and says that relationship has not completely ended.
“I’ll still be keeping in touch with Martin. He’ll keep an eye on everything and make sure I don’t go too overboard. Because he’s worked with me for so many years he knows me really well so I’ll keep him in the loop as regards training.”
Heading up the An Post-Chainreaction’s bid for a GC win will be new Kiwi recruit Shane Archbold, a rider Bennett struggled to find superlatives for.
“He has unbelievable power. Last Sunday we were sprinting for nothing and said we’d try and do a lead out to practice for next week; he went to the front from a kilometre out to about 200 metres to go and just lined it out after a real hilly course. He’s absolutely flying, his power has come on, and his form came on so quickly. Shane can definitely do some serious damage, he’s an absolute animal.”
And what happens if they’re both there in the final?
“Obviously in my home country I want to do well but we’ll be honest with each other,” suggests Bennett.
“We get on great so I don’t think we’ll have a problem.”
