Sam Bennett has said he is unsure of his race scheduled for the rest of the season, including whether he will ride La Vuelta, saying it was “possible” he would be selected for the Spanish Grand Tour.
After the Irish sprinter and his lead-out man Ryan Mullen were not selected by Bora-hansgrohe for the Tour de France it was expected they would instead refocus on the Vuelta.
However, like many top World Tour teams, Bora-hansgrohe now seems intent on focusing its Grand Tour efforts on the general classification. That trend among the top teams has resulted in the omission of some top sprinters from Grand Tour teams in recent years.
Jai Hindley won the Giro this year for the German team while Aleksandr Vlasov finished 5th overall at the Tour, after illness and a crash. The team opted to build it’s Tour team around Vlasov, while also trying for a stage win in some breakaways, and so Bennett and Mullen were not picked.
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It now looks certain that Hindley will ride the Vuelta while Sergio Higuita has been prioritising the Spanish race all season. The Colombian warmed up nicely yesterday by taking the stage victory and overall lead in the Tour de Pologne on the first uphill finish.
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The strong form of the general classification riders in the team – and Bennett’s continuing search for the return of his winning sprint – may lead to Bora-hansgrohe again opting for a general classification team at La Vuelta.
When asked by cyclingnews at the Tour de Pologne yesterday about his chances of riding La Vuelta, Bennett said it was “possible”.
"It's not super-clear," he added. "I'll do the European Champs and see what results come of that." He added while he was naturally disappointed to miss the Tour, he was focused on trying to move his season on by winning a stage in Poland.
On Saturday’s opening stage in Poland he was 14th, after a near miss with the crowd control barriers with 1km to go. On Sunday he placed 5th. While he looked to have finished faster on Sunday, he said he had felt better on the opening stage. Yesterday, on a stage not suited to the sprinters, he was 139th at 11:32.
Tour de Pologne continues today with the 179.4km stage 4 from Lesko to Sanok. It features a series of climbs that look likely to split the race. The sprinters’ best remaining chance is on Friday’s final stage into Kraków as the final climb is modest and comes 40km before the finish.
