He has come up against, and beaten, better sprinters than he's met this week. But during the last few days Sam Bennett has for the first time displayed the swagger of a great champion.
5 reasons Sam Bennett latest win was his best
Sam Bennett came into the Tour of Turkey having beaten the best sprinters in the world twice this year for victory.
He took stage 3 of Paris-Nice way back in March in front of Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin), John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo), Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors), Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), Arnaud Demare (FDJ) and André Greipel (Lotto Soudal).
And just before he set off for Turkey last week he won Sparkassen Munsterland Giro.
There he got the better of Phil Bauhaus (Sunweb), Greipel, Kittel and Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo).
The opposition he beat for those two victories was better than what he’s up against this week. But still, Bennett’s fourth victory today was truly something special; here’s why.
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1 Pressure
Having won the opening three stages Bennett was the odds-on favourite today. Everyone simply expected him to win and anything but victory would have been regarded as a defeat.
The pressure was on big time and he came through.
2 The climbs
He got over the last climb, a cat 2 with about 30km remaining; something that very few top sprinters will do.
And he wasn’t on his hands and knees having done so; he still finished the job in great style.
3 Lost team mates
Gregor Mühlberger has been a great asset to Bennett this week and he didn’t start today due to illness.
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Likewise, Shane Archbold has been a great asset for the Irishman in Turkey, but he was sent into the breakaway today.
Leo König and Michael Schwarzmann both came down in a crash just before the climbing began.
When the race split on the climb, the only team mate Bennett had for company was Silvio Herklotz.
And while Alex Saramotins was able to get back up to his two team mates, this was not a stage where Bennett was aided as much by his team as his first three wins.
4 Movement through the bunch
The overhead footage of the sprint wasn’t great but if you watch it –available here – a few times you’ll see Bennett’s epic movement through the front of the bunch.
He went from about 15th to 3rd or 4th within some 100 metres and then pounced to win.
Bennett made it look easy, but that kind of movement so late in a WorldTour race is anything but.
5 Swagger
It may sound like a strange point to make, but Sam Bennett showed real swagger today.
He was well out of it with about 250 metres to go and got badly bumped twice by other riders.
But he was well able to throw his weight around; as you have to in sprints at this level.
What we saw today was a rider in his pomp; taking charge and showing his speed and grunt in simply refusing to have the victory taken from him.
This kind of swagger is what differentiates the good from the great at this level.
Bennett is still on 26 years old. And the way he has taken charge this week, even if he has beaten much better sprinters in the past, is actually more significant than the number of victories he's taken this week.
He said himself that learning to win more often at smaller races would aid him in winning more really big ones.
And if he can maintain this approach, especially considering he can climb better than some other sprinters; very, very big things await him.
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