Sam Bennett, backed by fellow Irishman Ryan Mullen, will be back on the roads of Germany tomorrow chasing another win in their team's home nation, where they ride Rund um Köln.
Carrick-on-Suir's Bennett had a challenging start to the season, with the wins not coming as easily as in other years. However, he got the show back on the road in some style three weeks ago in Germany when he won Eschborn-Frankfurt.
That was the second one-day World Tour win of Bennett's career - after Oxyclean Classic Brugge-De Panne early last season. And he will be looking for more tomorrow, where victory will be the only goal of the day in a race he won in both 2014 and 2018.
Mullen, the reigning Irish champion, has really come into his own since joining Bora-hansgrohe with Bennett for this year; the powerhouse rider expertly pulling the lead-out train into position for Bennett repeatedly since the start of the season.
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Bennett is one of several stand-out sprint names on the start list, along with Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin Fenix), Hugo Hofstetter (Arkéa Samsic), Rudy Barbier (Israel-Premier Tech) while BikeExchange-Jayco have three men capable of winning a bunch sprint; Dylan Groenewegen, Sam Bewley and Kelland O'Brien.
A third Irish rider is also in the race, with Australian-born Jesse Ewart lining out of Bike Aid after already having ridden very well in the early months of the season, including 3rd overall at Tour de Rwanda.
A win for Bennett would be another step in the right direction - towards the Tour de France - and would offer more evidence the Irishman is back on top, as very strongly suggested by his winning margin at Eschborn-Frankfurt on May 1st.
As well as Bennett and Mullen, also selected in the Bora-hansgrohe line-up tomorrow are: Danny van Poppel, Jonas Koch, Luis-Joe Lührs, Jordi Meeus and Nils Politt. That's a very strong line-up and another opportunity for Bennett to gel with his new lead-out riders.
