Sam Bennett gave himself just months to continue cycling before he would quit, until he won a stage of the Tour of Britain and he finally got a pro contract.
That victory on stage 5 of the race in 2013, when Bennett was riding with the An Post-Sean Kelly team, meant he secured a place with NetApp Endura, which was a step up to ProContinental level.
Bennett began riding for that team in 2014, taking three wins that year. He would stay with that team for six years as it stepped up to WorldTour level and morphed in Bora-hansgrohe.
And by the time he had left that team for his current employers, Deceuninck-QuickStep, on a two year deal last year he was one of the best sprinters in the world and has since take two stage wins on the Tour de France and the green jersey.
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However, while his apparently seamless progression and success since 2014 makes his career seem like a foregone conclusion, he has told The Irish Times he came very close to quitting cycling in the period just before that crucial Tour of Britain win into Caerphilly.
He said he became injured again during the 2013 season and had a conversation with his father about continuing until the end of that season as he had given it his best shot to turn pro and, to that point, had come up short.
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“After multiple injuries and broken bones, I had three
years of knee problems I just couldn’t get right,” he recalled of that period
in 2013 when he was just out of the U23 ranks and into the elites and had been
in Belgium several years.
“I was injured again and I was kind of down, and there was a moment where I was having a chat with my dad."
Sam Bennett continued: “He said I haven’t seen you happy in a long time, you’ve given this your everything over the last few years, and you keep getting injured. You can’t say you haven’t tried.
“He said to give it to the end of the season, and if I
didn’t get my pro contact to go back to college, there was more to life and I
could have a good life at home.
“That was a real make-or-break moment. That September I
won my first professional race; I got my contract and turned pro a month later.
“I think there is a point where people are looking at you saying you have potential. There is a moment when that goes, and you have to be getting results. You need to be showing more.”
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