By Shane Stokes
Sam Bennett has confirmed that he will return to competition within the coming ten days, with the 1.Pro-ranked Sparkassen Münsterland Giro on Monday October 3rd to mark his first race since withdrawing from the Vuelta a España with Covid-19.
Bennett won two stages in the Spanish Tour but had to pull out prior to the start of the stage 10 time trial after testing positive for the virus.
He had mild symptoms while infected but while he anticipated a straightforward return to training, things didn’t go to plan.
“Initially I didn’t feel bad at all,” he said a fortnight ago. “After I think eight days, I had a negative PCR and went to get all the heart checks, get the lungs checked, got the blood test. I got the all clear.
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“The problem was that I started back training and the energy was just not there. I tried three hours, but I was completely out of it after two hours. I did a three and half [hour ride], then I had to take another two, three days off.”
He said that if things didn’t quickly improve he and his Bora-hansgrohe squad might decide to end his season early.
Fortunately things have gone better since then and he should be back to competition on Monday week.
Two other events are pencilled in after that. The 1.1 Paris-Bourges follows on Thursday October 6th, with the third event being the 1.Pro-ranked Paris-Tours race on Saturday October 9th.
While logging racing kilometres prior to the end of the season will be important, he hopes for more than that.
“It depends how I feel,” Bennett told Stickybottle. “I want to get results, but I just hope the legs play along.”
