Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) will look to dust himself down from the disappointment of his Tour de France omission and get back to winning ways at the Sibu Cycling Tour in Romania, where the action kicks off today, Thursday.
The Irish rider's team is the only World Tour outfit in the race, which can be an unpredictable event as the strong teams that can impose order - especially for the sprint stages - will be missing. There are also several finishes for climbers during the five stages, meaning the chances for sprinters are not exactly plentiful.
Bennett has not taken a victory since the first day of his season back in January - at Vuelta a San Juan Internacional in Argentina - and he is now under real pressure to start adding to that tally, especially if he wants to ride La Vuelta.
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There are five ProContinental teams in Sibu Cycling Tour; Lotto-Dstny, Uno-X Pro Cycling Team, Corratec-Selle Italia, Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè and Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team. There are also 15 Continental level teams and three national squads; Mexico, Romania and Hungary.
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Bennett's first chance of a victory may come as soon as today as the 199km stage starting and finishing in Sibiu is mostly flat. However, there is a late climb - of 3.6km - though the gradient is below three per cent.
After today's stage, there are summit finishes on Friday and Saturday before a split stage on Sunday; a 97.3km road race in the morning and 3.3km TT later in the day.
That final road stage should suit the sprinters, though there is a modest kicker up to the finish line. However, given the step down in level for Bennett, and the fact he was aiming to peak around now for the Tour, he is a hot favourite for at least one stage win.
He is part of a Bora-hansgrohe team that also includes Florian Lipowitz, Patrick Gamper, Maximilian Schachmann, Frederik Wandahl and Cesare Benedetti.
