He's come a long way: Sam Bennett may be sidelined due to illness at precisely the wrong time of year, but barring disaster he will lead his team at the Tour de France (Photo: Sirotti)
By Brian Canty
Sam Bennett has suffered a setback, albeit a minor one, in the build-up to what will be his first Tour de France beginning at the start of next month.
Twelve months ago the then NetApp-Endura man took victory at the Rund um Koln one-day race in Germany and was scheduled to line out in the same event tomorrow, Sunday.
However, while he would have been among the favourites to defend his title in the UCI 1.1 ranked event, he has been forced to cry off due to a cold.
Despite the blip, his team has reiterated its confidence in him for the Tour by naming him as leader of the German-registered squad for the three week engagement in France.
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He will now ride the ZLM Toer in the Netherlands next week; June 17th to 21st.
After that outing Bennett’s steam will confirm its full nine-man Tour de France roster, though the Irishman is certain to start and a certainty to be team leader.
Bennett won three stages at the recent Bayern Rundfahrt. One of the men he was faster than, Nacer Bouhanni, has won two stages at the Critérium du Dauphiné this week and won five Grand Tour stages last year (Photo: Marc Dreesen)
The team already knows the bulk of its team for the Tour, it just remains to be seen who will be Bennett's lead-out men.
One rider who won't be doing the Tour is his former An Post Chainreaction teammate Shane Archbold as he failed to make the short list announced yesterday.
Zak Dempster is a shoe-in after some strong performances in the service of Bennett this year and last.
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The team said it would back Bennett as leader in the hunt for a stage win, but would also bring a man for the general classification in case things went awry for the Irishman for whatever reason.
"We will start with a dual leadership in this year’s Tour de France,” team manager Ralph Denk said.
“Therefore, we decided already on the key positions in our squad. After the very successful first half of the season, Sam Bennett will make his debut in a Grand Tour.
"He is one of the fastest men in the peloton and he deserves to compete with the best sprinters in the biggest race of the world.
"In addition, Dominik Nerz is our man for the general classification,” Denk added.
“We work with him very hard on his preparation since the beginning of the year. After a setback in the winter by an illness, we are now completely on schedule.
"In accordance with this, we’ll add riders to our tour line-up who support Sam in the sprint preparation and are helpful for Dominik in the mountains.
The squad further will be completed with riders who can achieve a result at selected stages, such as Jan Barta in the time trial.”
Bora-Argon 18 Tour short list, with rider ages and nationalities
Jan Barta (30, CZE), Cesare Benedetti (27, ITA), Sam Bennett (24, IRL), Emanuel Buchmann (22, GER), Zakkari Dempster (27, AUS), Bartosz Huzarski (34, POL), Patrick Konrad (23, AUS), Jose Mendes (30, POR), Dominik Nerz (25, GER), Cristiano Salerno (30, ITA), Andreas Schillinger (31, GER), Björn Thurau (26, GER), Paul Voss (29, GER)
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