Sam Bennett has said he was very happy with how his winter off season had gone and was now very keen to get racing again.
The Carrick-on-Suir man will pin on numbers for the first time this year on the opening stage of UAE Tour on Sunday.
And with four of the seven stages expected to finish in sprints it should be a great week for Bennett to try and add to his growing list of wins.
“It’s been a good winter and I am looking forward to
starting the season,” he said of getting going again after a dream season last
year with Tour de France green and two stage wins.
“You always wait for the first race to see where the condition is, so Sunday can’t come soon enough."
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Bennett (30) continued: “There will be plenty of sprint opportunities and I hope to do good, although I expect some stiff competition.
“The team had a great start to the season in France and
it would be nice if we could continue that – it’s what we want.”
Bennett will be backed in the sprints by a very
formidable trio in the shape of Shane Archbold, Iljo Keisse and Michael Mørkøv.
At UAE Tour Bennett will be up against many of the world’s other top sprinters, as stickybottle sets out here.
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But having been supported so well and with such success last year, he will look to hit the ground with an early win and Mørkøv should be a potent weapon for him.
However, Bennett’s team is not limiting itself to the sprints over the coming week as its young Portuguese star of last year’s Giro d’Italia, João Almeida, has been selected and has his own support for the general classification battle.
Almeida rode brilliantly through last year, his first at WorldTour level, culminating in leading the Giro for 15 days.
This time around the team is backing him for more big performances on the Jebel Hafeet and Jebel Jais summit finishes, with Mattia Cattaneo and Fausto Masnada for support.
“We have a strong team for the first World Tour race of
the year, an event which will be made even more interesting by the presence of
an individual time trial, something rare in the UAE,” said Deceuninck-QuickStep
sports director Geert Van Bondt.
“In Sam – who had a great first season with the Wolfpack
– we have a guy who can fight for results on four stages, with Michael and
Shane there for him and Iljo as team captain, a very strong rider capable of
controlling the race.
“For the mountains, we have three riders – João, Mattia
and Fausto – all strong guys, so overall we are excited to go there.”
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