While Sam Bennett initially believed he might win the race against time to ride the Tour de France, he is still out of action and his 2021 season is over.
Bennett now needs knee surgery, with three to four months of recovery and rehab, and so the next time we will see him in action it will be in Bora-hansgrohe kit next year.
Just before the Tour started, Bennett said his knee was
pain free. But he explained back then he needed more time to be sure the injury
had cleared up.
He also said at that time he needed more time to regain
race condition, which he had lost due to a lack of proper training for two
weeks, and so he was not riding the Tour.
His team boss, Patrick Lefevere, said Bennett was suffering
from inflammation of the patellar tendon, which he said was a “persistent
injury” that had required surgery when other riders in his team had suffered
the same issue.
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And now it appears that scenario has come to pass, with
the Deceuninck-QuickStep team confirming today that Bennett
would need surgery and so his season was over.
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Lefevere has criticised Bennett repeatedly in the last
couple of months and even threatened to sideline him and dock his salary
payments.
However, because Bennett is injured and now needs
surgery, sidelining him for the remainder of the season and trying to punish him
financially does not arise.
Lefevere would be in breach of UCI rules and employment
law if he tried such a move because a rider was injured.
The news means while Bennett’s time at Deceuninck-QuickStep
was very successful – with two Tour stage wins and the green jersey among a
series of other victories – his time racing with the team was short.
Much of last year was wiped out due to
the pandemic, though Bennett still raced for 68 days, which was only marginally
lower than the previous season’s 76 days.
But this year was cut short for him due
to his injury, with Bennett racing just 24 days and ending his season, and his
racing with Deceuninck-QuickStep, on May 9th.
However, that shortened season was completely
out of his control. He banged his knee off his handlebars out training; a minor
incident that has now caused a not insignificant injury that requires surgery.
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