Sam Bennett gets his first taste of the Tour of Flanders tomorrow when he lines out for an injury ravaged NetApp Endura team.
By Gerard Cromwell
A spate of crashes in the past few days for the NetApp Endura team sees Sam Bennett get a late call up to ride one of the monuments of the sport the, Tour of Flanders tomorrow, Sunday.
Bennett will be the only Irish rider on the start line in the cobbled classic and was called up after most of his teammates, including classics captain Paul Voss, hit the deck at either Gent-Wevelgem or the Three Days of De Panne in the past few days.
A broken finger keeps Voss out of the team while Daniel Schorne broke two ribs and a collarbone at Gent Wveelgem and Scott Thwaites has stitches in an arm wound at the moment.
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“I’m really happy to be starting Flanders,” said Bennett today.
“Unfortunately it was at the cost of injured team mates who were coming into good form for it. The team mentioned it to me that I might be called in to ride on Monday after Gent-Wevelgem, where we had four crashes. And then when five of the guys crashed on Tuesday it was definite.”
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Although Bennett has ridden over most of the bergs on the parcours in his time with the An Post squad in Belgium, he realises that lining up against Cancellara, Boonen and the other huge names at the Tour of Flanders will be a different prospect altogether.
“I dont think anybody will be holding back. It may look easy on TV, but when you see it any bit lined out you know it will be hell. I’m excited but I’m also nervous about it. I will probably be riding as a domestique, but I’d love to be able to finish it and get that distance in the legs.”
Bennett will also ride Scheldeprijs in Belgium on Wednesday, where the flatter terrain should suit the Carrick-On-Suir sprinter more than the cobbled climbs of Flanders.
“Scheldiprijs is definitely more suited to me and I need legs for that but it’s great to get a taste of riding the Tour of Flanders at a young enough age.”
NetApp Enura directeur sportif Enrico Poitschke says that while the injuries have ravaged the squad, they will go into the “Ronde” to give it their all.
“Because we will be missing Paul Voss, who was supposed to be our captain, we will be at a major disadvantage this year, especially since Daniel Schorn also won’t be able to start the race as the result of a crash," he said.
"It will be almost impossible to compensate for the two of them. Not only that, but many of our other guys were also involved in crashes over the past few days. We will just have to present ourselves as best we can and give it our all.”
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