Ireland's Sam Bennett won three Giro stages this year but he will not be riding the race in 2019. His team has informed him he is not in its plans for the Italian race.
Sam Bennett has expressed his disappointment at being told by his Bora-hansgrohe team he will not be riding the Giro next year.
The Irish fast man won three stages of the Italian Grand Tour this year. But the team has decided its German sprinter Pascal Ackermann will do next year’s Giro rather than Bennett.
It is possible Bennett will ride the Vuelta late in the season. He says that with the team being a German squad he believed management probably needed to keep its German sponsors happy.
And while he praised team manager Ralph Denk for the commercial transformation of the team since he joined it as ProConti squad NetApp-Endura, he believed if he was German he would get a better programme.
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That programme, he said, may even extend to getting a ride at the Tour de France; a race he will also not compete in next year.
Peter Sagan will be the team’s main rider for stages at the Tour. Bennett said he accepted the Tour was always going to be unlikely for him, but he found his omission from the Giro much harder to understand.
“I’m not satisfied with the race programme for next season,” Sam Bennett told cyclingnews at his team camp in Mallorca.
“There’s no Giro and I’m not doing it. In my last twelve sprints there I was never outside of the top three. I won three stages, I know how to perform there and I know the race.
“When I signed my last contract I knew that the Tour de France might not be an option. But I thought I’d be doing the Giro. It’s a bit of a knock and I think ‘what have I done wrong?’”
Bennett continued of his programme for next year: “I’m not going to get a Tour de France spot and the Giro is out of the question.
“There’s the Vuelta but I want to compete with the best sprinters. Maybe this will bring great things.
“Maybe they want me to do the Vuelta. I’ll keep my head and keep racing. I’ll be professional but it’s hard because it took me so many years to get to where I am.
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“I feel like I’m almost punished. I deserve (to ride the Giro), I deserve it. There’s no doubt about it.
“How many people could consistently compete with Elia Viviani this year? I was able to handle him. I can’t do anymore.”
However, he said he would still be riding big races and he was hopeful the season would be a good one, despite his Giro disappointment.
Sam Bennett added he loved riding for the team and held no grudge. He also believed Ackermann deserved his chance.
But he was disappointed he did not have more say in his race programme for the coming season.
Praia a Mare, Imola, Rome: Sam Bennett's stage wins of the 2018 edition of Giro d'Italia.
Sam Bennett said immediately after his season-ending Tour of Turkey he was pushing for a leadership role at Giro 2019. And he reiterated that at the recent Cycling Ireland awards night.
"I’m fighting for my Giro spot for next year. There’s pressure with other riders in the team. But I feel I deserve my spot,” he said two weeks ago after winning the award for best international performance of 2018..
“I’ve been consistent in the race now for two seasons. If that is my plan, I think I can start at San-Remo,” he said of the only classic the pure sprinters can win.
Ackerman, who will be the team's sprinter at the Giro, is the current German national champion. The 24-year-old has just completed his second year with the team. He won eight races this year.
Sam Bennett joined the team in its NetApp-Endura days, in 2014. Next year, his final season with the outfit under his current contract, will be his sixth with them.
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