Sam Bennett has said his power was up in the last week after recovering from La Vuelta and Eddie Dunbar has also expressed satisfaction with his condition.
They go into the elite men’s road race at the World
Championships in Yorkshire in an Irish team that also features Ryan Mullen,
Rory Townsend, Dan Martin and Conor Dunne.
It is a very strong team, though Mullen has been hit with
some injuries in recent months.
Martin rode strongly in Canada recently, Townsend has had
his best season ever and Dunne has ridden well all year.
The course looks like one that will give Bennett the best chance, though if it is raced hard the classics men or even some climbers may be to the fore on the final lap of the Harrogate circuit.
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However, if it were race in a way that a select group of road men/classics men emerged at front for the finish, Sam Bennett can be in that group.
And based on his standing now in the sport and the stunning season he has had; if the Carrick-on-Suir man was sprinting for victory, anything could happen.
In 2015 at the Worlds in Hamilton, Bennett was with the leaders until about 5km to go. He is a much better rider now and not just in terms of his sprint.
Going all the way tomorrow is definitely not beyond him, though a lot will depend on how the race is tackled by the strong nations and if they will try to shake off the fast men early.
Having come out of La Vuelta with two stage wins and four
2nd places, Bennett has every reason to be confident.
“Last week
I was a bit tired, but this week I was
doing some good power. In general I should go good. I think for one day
anyway I’ll be grand,” he said looking forward to tomorrow’s 280km race.
“The legs are there, I just have to get them out. And I need everything to go my way then on Sunday. It’s just with the weather and the distance; it’ll be a long hard day.”
Sam Bennett believed positioning would be crucial throughout the race as riding at or near the back would be so demanding out of the corners.
“In all, it’s a
good circuit but the weather is going to make it really challenging and then
the distance; that might get to me a bit. But I’ll just have to try and cope
with it.
“If it was a dry
it would be a lovely day, you’d get a lot of spectators and it would be a good
atmosphere on the circuit. But in the wet there’s some tricky corners in the
race; it’ll be hard.
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“I don’t like
racing in the rain but I do get results in the rain. I’ll probably be fine (if
it rains). I’ll do the normal thing and moan about it but I’ll be grand,” he
joked.
“It’s the kind of circuit that if you got away, with all the corners and stuff and you’re strong enough, you’d be out of sight I think."
Sam Bennett continued: “But always with the champs; it’s an elimination race. And I think this will be something similar; you’ll just have to fight and try and hang in.
“A good person to
really watch will be (Michael)
Matthews; he’s been on the podium so many times. And (Alexander) Kristoff as well; they’ll be waiting for a
select group and I think they’ll be good.
“The likes of (Peter) Sagan and (Julian) Alaphilippe, (Mathieu) van der Poel and (Philippe) Gilbert; I think they’ll race it."
“I’m just going
to have to ride my own race and not really watch them too much. I just hope I
don’t make any mistakes.
“If I do
everything right there should be nothing to worry about; just race. But I just
hope I don’t miss a split; not be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“If I do everything right I just think it would be an external factor that messes it up for me. In general I just have to keep calm about it and just race.”
For his part, Eddie Dunbar said his TT ride midweek at the Worlds had given him the confidence that his form was where it needed to be.
“The result
wasn’t super, it didn’t reflect how I felt but I actually felt quite
strong in the TT,” he said.
“I hit the power
I was supposed to and I was happy with that; a good consistent effort over an
hour and I was pleased with that.”
He said everyone riding tomorrow’s race would need to
wait and see how the 200km from Leeds to the circuit unfolded.
“I think it’s
going to be a case of getting to the circuits and see what happens. There’s
200k before that and a lot can happen,” he said.
“In the race in
the last few days we’ve seen that if you have a mechanical or anything your
race can be over pretty quick.
“It’s going to be
an interesting race. It’s hard to say (how the finale will go) but in terms of
the circuit; it’s fairly brutal alright when you get there so it’s going to be
interesting.
“It’s going to be
raced hard and I think it will be a wearing down process.”
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