Sam Bennett has been a prolific winner of races this year and will be a winner columnist with Ireland's biggest and best source for cycling news and views.
Following on from the runaway success of Philip Deignan’s daily diary on stickybottle during the Giro d’Italia, Sam Bennett has been signed up and will begin writing during the Tour of Britain.
The race, which starts in Liverpool on Sunday, involves nine stages over eight days; concluding in London with a split time trial and road race stage on Sunday week.
Bennett said he was delighted to be writing for us.
“I’d no hesitation in signing up when I was approached and it’s something a little bit out of the ordinary for me that I’m really looking forward to doing,” he said.
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“Stickybottle is only around a few years but they’ve made a great impact. I think it’s a first stop every day for people who follow cycling in Ireland.
“And I’m constantly surprised when I’m away from home at the number of times it crops up in conversations with people and the reach it seems to have built up in a short couple of years. So it’s great to get involved.”
Taking his Tour of Britain stage win last year, a victory that proved instrumental in his development as a pro rider.
Bennett lines out for NetApp-Endura in Britain, having sealed his place with the team when he won a stage in the race last year and was very competitive in the bunch sprints that settled the flatter stages.
Since then he has adjusted seamlessly to the paid ranks, being a constant presence in the results right from the start of the season at the Tour of Qatar and Tour of Oman, where he took a podium place.
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He finished third on stage 6 on Oman behind Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) and Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr), who have won stages in the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana since then.
Bennett jumped this year to ProContinental level from Continental with An Post-Chainreaction last year. And while he was riding major races with the Irish-registered team before this year, he has ridden bigger events more often this season and yet has scored four wins.
He began with victory in the Clasica de Almeria in March, the Rund um Köln in April, victory in the fifth stage of the Bayern Rundfarht in June and a Belgian pro kermesse with in July.
An ambitious rider, he does not believe he has quite hit the form he reached in the latter part of last season, when he won the hilly fifth stage at the Tour of Britain into Caerphilly from a select group.
He was also second on stage 2 and stage 8; beaten only by Milan San Remo winner Gerard Ciolek and Mark Cavendish respectively.
More recently, he rode the Arctic Race of Norway last month, where a crash set him back but where he still took 3rd on the final stage.
He said before that race he had worked hard towards a strong end of season. He is looking to add to his 2014 victory tally in the coming week and he will bring you his views and plenty of behind the scenes information over the course of the race.
Bennett will become a regular contributor on stickybottle and after the success of Deignan’s Giro diary, he too will be returning before the European road season ends for this year; two world class transfers to the home of Irish cycling.
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