Sam Bennett has been named in the Deceuninck-QuickStep line-up for the Tour de France, as expected. The race gets underway next weekend and the Irish champion is a favourite for stage wins given his recent form.
It will be Bennett's sixth Grand Tour appearance and it will be the first time he has ridden the French race since 2016.
He competed in the event for the first time in 2015 but was ill and abandoned. Bennett rode again the following year; finishing the race despite breaking a finger in a sprint finish crash on the opening day.
This time around, however, the Carrick-on-Suir man goes into the race as one of the very best sprinters in the world and while there are only a relatively small number of chances for sprinters, he should take his first Tour win as he has been in fantastic form.
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Sam Bennett has already claimed three stages at the Giro d'Italia and won two stages in La Vuelta, meaning a victory at the Tour would complete a Grand Tour hat trick that only the very best achieve.
Bennett has already won several races this year, including a stage of the Tour de Wallonie last week and a stage at Vuelta a Burgos since racing re-started after the Covid19 suspension.
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Both of those recent victories were brilliant wins taken in dominant fashion. And while he will face a stellar sprinters' line-up at the Tour, he will go into the race with plenty of confidence after his win in Belgium last week.
Bennett and Julian
Alaphilippe – who was the star of the Tour last year - are set to lead the team
in the three-week race, which gets underway in Nice next Saturday.
Michael Mørkøv will be Bennett’s main lead-out man
though, unfortunately, Shane Archbold – Bennett’s partner in crime in the
sprints for years – has not been named in the line-up.
Also in the team are Zdenek Štybar, Bob Jungels, Tim
Declercq, Dries Devenyns and Kasper Asgreen, the latter having just won the
Danish road race title.
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