Sam Bennett has had a rough time of it since his high-speed crash on the opening stage of the Tour de France this year. He was forced off the bike for five consecutive days after the race and his body simply “shut down”. But he's coming back to the kind of form that wins races and he'll be aiming to do just that tonight at the GP Quebec.
By Brian Canty
Sam Bennett hasn’t had things so easy since the Tour de France in July, what with the hand he injured in a horror crash on day one still not fully recovered and the subsequent loss of form as a result of not training for five consecutive days after it.
“I just took the cast off my hand last Monday,” he offered by way of an injury update, eight weeks after his Tour crash.
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“I’m trying to get the flexion back in baby finger. I’ll have to work on that and the others are still not at full flexion but I can use them on the bike which is good. I can hold the bars properly now.
“It was awkward with the cast because it was getting caught on the levers but it’s okay now. I’m just trying to use it more, do a few exercises but it’s nothing major,” he added.
Aside from his hand, the rest of his body is in decent nick after some hard times post-Tour.
“It’s okay, it took a really long time to get back (into shape) after this Tour,” he said.
“Last year I was okay by (Arctic Race of) Norway but this year I was still suffering a bit. I think I’m getting there now.
“I took too much off,” he conceded. “I took five days off straight away and that was too much.
"I should have trained straight away the next day (after the Tour) because the body shuts down and then maybe taken time off. But I took five days off and the body shut down so to get it going again was horrible.
“The second week was the hardest: I was getting 11-12 hours sleep a night but I was just wrecked.
“I was even cutting training down or skipping it because I couldn’t hold any watts.
Bennett limps into the stage 1 Utah Beach finish at the Tour after a crash that knocked him for six and which he is now only really regrouping from (Photo: Sirotti)
“I don’t know what it was about this year’s Tour; I didn’t come out of it so well. But I’m coming around now though.
“After a Grand Tour you have to keep going but I didn’t have a choice because I was supposed to get an operation on my hand and I had a lot of travelling to do.
“There was nothing I could really do about it. I was stuck in Germany for a while and I could have done without that.”
Given the severity of that opening day smash at the Tour, the 25 year-old revealed his trepidation was real in the races immediately afterwards.
“I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t ride a bunch for three weeks in the Tour and then when it came to the bunch sprint I couldn’t do it,” he said.
He raced the GP Stad Zottegem (UCI 1.1) and Druivenhoers Overijse (UCI 1.1) once he felt in slightly better shape after the Tour.
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"I just raced them, I didn’t race them like a sprinter, I just wanted to go and help the others," he said of his team mates.
“The legs came around and I got a bit of confidence from moving around and jumping through the bunch.
"And then in GP de Fourmies and I was able to hold my position a lot better and in the sprint.”
Indeed, with a steep downhill before the finish and plenty of the world’s top guys chomping at the bit, Bennett could have dropped the anchors and drifted back but he wanted it, ordering his team to give him a hand in the final.
“I asked the guys to go up the front with 2k to go as there was a downhill and they kept me there," he said of his getting back in the sprint game after the battering he took at the Tour.
“It meant I didn’t have to fight and in the last kilometre it was a lot easier. They did an awesome job.
“I was able to sprint and the mental stress of it was a lot less and I think I needed that.
“I didn’t expect them to be in the last kilometre but Lukas (Postlberger) was there. It was good to be top 10 for the head and the confidence and I think it was my first real sprint back, I felt good.
“It’s only 8th but I’m coming from not finishing races to being top 10.”
In the yellow jersey during the stage 2 time trial at the Critérium International in Corsica in March.
It’s just as well he’s starting to feel like the real Sam Bennett again because there are plenty races left for him to win.
He contests six more races in Italy next after which it’s straight to GP Munsterland, Paris Bourges, Paris Tours and the UCI World Championships.
Last Friday he rode Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec (1.UWT) and yesterday contested the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal (1.UWT). Both Canadian races were over 200km and Bennett was 52nd and 97th respectively.
Results aside, it was good to get two long races into his legs before what is a busy end of season for him.
He is now starting to look ahead to 2017 and his debut in the WorldTour after Bora-Argon 18 received a licence to compete at the top tier.
Of course they’ll be renamed Bora-Hansgrohe and after acquiring world champion Peter Sagan and top GC rider Rafal Majka the spotlight will be on the men in black and red.
But for Bennett, it’s a spotlight he reckons he’s best avoiding.
“I let them do their own thing, I’ll get my race programme,” he said.
“The team need World Tour points, they’re doing the same as Dimension Data did by signing Cav.
“There’ll be big sponsorship next year and you have to perform. We have the superstar in the sport, it is a business we’re in and I think they’re doing a very good job of it.
“For me, maybe it’ll be good to have a jersey with more respect in the peloton and maybe all the attention and the pressure will go to him (Sagan) and maybe I can just do my own thing in the background.
“It’ll be really good for the team but for me, I just do my own thing.”
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