Sam Bennett has taken has third win of the Tour of Turkey. His thoughts are already on next season.
Having scored a fantastic solo win into Istanbul at the Tour of Turkey today, Sam Bennett said it was a great way to finish the season.
And with his morale high heading into his winter break, his thoughts are already on next year.
The team has hired some new riders and others, such as Pascal Ackermann have been sprinting well this season.
However, Bennett had a brilliant Giro this year with three stages. And he has repeated that over the last week in Turkey.
As a result, he says he wants a protected rider role in key events next year. And he plans to speak with Bora-hansgrohe about planning his 2019 season.
Advertisement
He jumped with 1.5km remaining today; getting a small gap and holding it all the way. The Carrick-on-Suir man had crashed on this stage last year, but took no chances this time.
And not only did he take his third stage, he also won the points classification.
Related News
“The guys were great today and they delivered me perfectly,” he said of his Bora-hansgrohe team mates in Turkey.
“The bunch kept coming back when we were at the front. But then going in to the last corner we were in the front there positions.
“I looked to see if Trek Segafredo or Quick-Step Floors were there. But they weren’t behind me and so I made the jump round the last bend.
“I know the finish here pretty well and what it’s like. So I made the jump and went hard on the climb as much as I could.
“If you do that then you can recover round the corners. I looked back and saw I had done it when I got round the last corner because they were gone.
“But that wouldn’t have been possible today without the team, they were brilliant. It feels like I’ve managed to get some redemption after my crash here last year.
“For that, and the type of finish it was today I think it was probably my favourite win out of any I’ve had.”
And he confirmed he would not go into the off-season buzzing after such a successful race.
“It’s great for morale going in to next season. I really want a leadership role at Paris-Nice and the Giro d’Italia,” he said.
“And I’ll speak to the team in the next couple of weeks to plan out the season. But this has definitely got my spirits high going in to next year.”
Topics
