Sam Bennett has ridden eight full seasons as a pro cyclist. But he's still learning; more than ever this year, he says. And he's determined to bring consistency to his racing in 2019.
Sam Bennett has said while he was happy with his year, he wanted a one-day WorldTour race victory on top of the results he achieved.
While he won three stages at the Giro and at the Tour of Turkey – both WorldTour events – the one-day races he won were not of WorldTour grade.
As well as the combined six stages he won in Italy and Turkey, he took Race Melbourne at the start of the year and Rund um Köln (1.1) in May.
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He said he was also targeting more consistency in 2019 and he believed he knew how to achieve that and “take the next step next year”.
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“I think before the Giro I had very little form and then I built too quick, too high,” he explained of a prolonged quiet period mid season.
“And then I just… my form wasn’t stable and I had a dip in the middle,” he added of the season just gone in the period after the Giro.
“I just took time to come back. The team gave me room and said ‘when you’re ready to race, then come back’.
“And by the end of the season I was good again. This off season now, I realised that unlike other sprinters I need to do a lot of hours and some big strength work.
“And I think having that base will make me more consistent next year. I’ve learnt this year how to hit a high level; how to get into shape and really target a race.
“I learnt some much from that but I has (made) mistakes. So I think this year was a year that I learnt the most. And I think next year I can be really consistent.
“I’m coming into my best years and I think I’m ready to make the next step.”
In winning mode in Turkey, a race he's taken seven stages in in the last two years for Bora-hansgrohe.
He had already expressed his dissatisfaction at being told by his team he would not be riding the Giro in 2019.
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He is omitted from the team’s Giro plans despite his success there this year. He was speaking to cyclingnews at his recent Bora-hansgrohe team training camp in Mallorca.
Sam Bennett also took a string of podium finishes in 2017 in the Italian race. That was despite illness wiping out his opening week of racing.
However, he has been professional about being left out of the Giro line-up, saying he would still have some great opportunities.
He added that he also understood his team, a German outfit, was subject to its own pressures, including from sponsors.
Pascal Ackermann will go to the Giro instead of Bennett. That decision has resulted in inevitable suggestions that he had been favoured as a German rider in a German team with sponsors from that country.
Bennett said he did not believe he would ride the Tour de France. Peter Sagan is the team’s nailed on team leader for that race.
And while he may ride the Vuelta, he suggested it was third in the pecking order of Grand Tours.
“For sprinters it’s the Tour de France, Giro and Vuelta. But for climbers the Vuelta’s still big, it’s a climbers’ tour, it’s hard.
“For the general public; they think of cycling and they just think of the Tour de France. Maybe (the team) want me to do the Vuelta, we’ll see. I just have to stay professional, keep the head.”
Sam Bennett, Nicholas Vereecken and Shane Archbold – all of An Post-Chainreaction take a 1-2-3 finish on the final stage of the An Post Rás in Skerries, north Co Dublin, in 2013. (Photo: Paul Mohan – Sportsfile)
Asked if changes in the team would impact his lead-out train, Sam Bennett said he believed he could adapt to any conditions.
It was important for him to have riders with engines around him to get him to 1km to go to the finish. After that, he could look after himself.
He stressed while he was disappointed not to be going to the Giro, which he had an “emotional connection” with; he wasn’t angry with them.
Having just turned 28 years old, next season will be Bennett’s third at WorldTour level.
He rode for two years before that as a ProContinental rider with his current team when it was called NetApp-Endura and Bora-Argon 18.
As a teenager he secured a stagiaire with Francaise des Jeux. But he was unable to take up that trial, back in 2010, because of injury.
He then went on to ride for the Continental team run by Sean Kelly and Kurt Bogaerts, An Post-Chainreaction. He rode with the Irish team for three years.
A stage win in the Tour of Britain in 2013 while riding for An Post secured his place with NetApp-Endura for the following season.
The quality of his wins has improved every year, with 30 victories to his name since the start of 2014.
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