A moment he has worked towards all his life; Sam Bennett with the eyes of the world's media on him as he gets underway from the iconic Tour de France TT start house (Photo: Sirotti)
By Brian Canty
Sam Bennett has described his experience during yesterday’s opening stage of the Tour de France as “absolutely electrifying” and “like nothing I’ve ever experienced before”.
The 24 year-old Bora-Argon 18 man was the fourth rider off in the 13.8 kilometre test against the clock yesterday afternoon and admitted he was a bag of nerves as he took up his place in the start house a little after 2pm.
“It was absolutely electrifying; I’m more tired from the excitement and the atmosphere than anything,” he said enthusiastically, clearly still buzzing from the experience.
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“It was just unbelievable with the crowds. I had an aero helmet on which covers my ears but they’re still ringing from the roaring of the crowds,” he added.
“I remember at the start I was completely shitting myself; the nerves hit me all at once when I realised what I was at.
“It just happened so f***** fast! I thought I was going to fall in the start ramp. That’d be some start to my first Tour!
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. It hit me in the start house, I just panicked, fear came over me and then I got up and got up on the bike and it happened so fast.”
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Bennett gets ready to get underway; his first stage in his first ever Tour de France sounded nerve wracking and exhilarating in equal measure (Photo: Bora Argon 18 - VeloImages)
Though he hasn’t raced since the end of May because of a slight illness he still managed to put out some staggering watts.
“It started off and the crowds were incredible. I remember getting into the skis thing ‘yeah, this is a good tempo’.
“But I was doing over 500 watts because the adrenaline was pumping so much so I had to hold back.
“I was just after coming out of the first corner and I had to slow down and 400 watts felt really slow but I was happy with it then because with 5k to go it felt normal, 350 watts.
“With the adrenaline at the beginning I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t take any risks on the corners though and I knew coming in the last 3k I was inside the time limit and I was able to chill out but it was amazing.”
He said his legs felt good, which was the most important thing as the first road stage unfolds today.
“They didn’t feel bad now at all. I felt I could have gone a lot deeper and if I was going for it I could have held higher watts and take corners much quicker so I was happy with the result.”
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