Patrick Lefevere has said he was concerned about Sam Bennett’s knee injury, explaining it was "persistent" and he was unsure right now if the Irishman could ride the Tour de France.
Deceuninck-QuickStep team boss Lefevere raised the prospect of Mark Cavendish taking Bennett’s place on the Tour instead. However, he said the British rider would need an improved contract, and had asked for one, before he could be expected to take on the challenge and expectation of riding the Tour.
To be clear, Lefevere has not said Bennett is out of the Tour and Cavendish is in. He has made it clear nothing is decided. But he has expressed concern about Bennett’s injury, which has already forced him out of Belgium Tour.
The team had previously said the injury arose during a training incident last week and seemed to suggest it was minor, though Lefevere has now offered a different perspective.
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“The problem is that he is suffering from inflammation of the patellar tendon and that’s a persistent injury,” Lefevere said of Bennett in his column in Nieuwsblad.
“We've been through it before with Tom Boonen, Zdenek Stybar and Andrea Bagioli, all of whom even had surgery. Will Sam make the Tour? At the moment we don't know. He has to rest until at least Monday."
It would be a devastating blow for Sam Bennett to miss
the Tour, especially given his stature as the world’s leading sprinter. And Irish cycling fans would be bitterly disappointed if
the Carrick-on-Suir man could not make the start of the race.
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This year’s Tour would be a massive opportunity for Bennett given the lead-out support he would have for the many sprint stages on the route this year. At least seven stages are earmarked as likely sprint stages.
“There is no real plan B (for) a sprinter," Lefevere said of Bennett's injury with the Tour getting so close. "I went to dinner with Mark Cavendish on Sunday evening and that's where the question came up: Do you want to do another Grand Tour? Mark replied: ‘Not at this salary, no’. That may sound cynical, but I understand his point of view.
"Mark is 35-years-old and joined us at the last minute. At that time, the Tour was out of the question at all. He signed a minimum contract because we had minimal expectations. The cards are different now. His level is much better than expected.”
Lefevere said Cavendish had won four stages at the Tour of Turkey and last Sunday he was “at least as fast as Tim Merlier” in the sprint for victory at Elfstedenronde - where Merlier won and Cavendish was 2nd after leaving his effort late.
Lefevere added because Cavendish had 30 Tour de France stage wins, and the record was 34 by Eddy Merckx, if Cavendish went to the Tour and won a stage, the pressure he would be under about breaking the record would be significant.
And for that reason, it would not be fair to send Cavendish to the Tour as Deceuninck-QuickStep’s lead sprinter on his current “minimum contract”.
“It's something I'm thinking about right now: extending Cavendish for the Tour, on better terms,” Lefevere added. “At least to get that issue out of the way. With the level he has now, Mark wants to continue for at least another year. We're going to at least talk about it together."
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