Sam Bennett has said the course at the World Championships in Australia this years looks like it's suited to him and he has named that race as a main goal of his in the year ahead.
After his injury-interrupted season last year, when he missed most of the 2021 campaign after May due to a knee problem, he says he also wants to target Milan-Sanremo and go back to the Tour de France.
The Carrick-on-Suir man has switched teams for this year. He has left Deceuninck-QuickStep, after a bruising time with team boss Patrick Lefevere, and has gone back to Bora-hansgrohe, which he departed after a protracted process in late 2019.
He has already said his injured knee is now pain free and he is looking forward to getting back into the peloton and doing what he does best; winning big races from sprints.
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"I think to really return to my top level right from the start and to bring as many wins as possible Bora-hansgrohe," he said of his goals for the upcoming season.
"For sure (I want to) to go back to the Tour de France, fight for the green jersey, stage wins. San Remo; it's the one that I really want to get a big result in. The World Championships looks like it's a good one for the sprinters," he said.
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Bennett added that simply winning races was the big goal and that "the fear of never being as good as I want to be" is what keeps him motivated in his career.
"I'm always chasing these ideas and these results. And still sometimes I feel very far away. And I feel that if I don't get them before I retire, maybe I won't be satisfied with my career. It keeps me motivated and keeps me on my toes so that I don't really relax too much."
He added if he did not improve those areas of his performances that he felt he could work on, and did not get the very best out of himself as a rider, he would "never forgive" himself because "I'd know I wasn't the best version of myself".
When asked in a team interview what was special about Bora-hansgrohe, Bennett joked that it was its "German efficiency".
"It's a well-oiled machine, everything works. There's a good structure, it just always looks like a solid professional team. In cycling, it's often so chaotic that is very hard to have control over an organisation but this team seems to have that in bucket loads.
"It seems to be well structured, well organised, a strong force. So, yeah, definitely it's one of the strongest teams in the peloton and one I'm certainly proud to be part of."
