Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) did not collect the 11th career Grand Tour stage win he was looking for from Giro d’Italia 2025; the Irishman never really looking like he was firing on all cylinders.
He also appeared out of position in some of the sprints or became boxed in when the final charge for the chequered flag was in full swing.
However, having yesterday recorded his first Grand Tour finish since 2020, Bennett can hopefully absorb the stress of such a big effort and discover better form in the second half of the year.
Overall, reflecting the Giro he said he was “disappointed” with his performance and especially the manner he rode some of the sprints. He described some of the stages in the mountains as “brutal”.
When it was put to him the Giro peloton had tackled over 24,000m of climbing in the third week, he laughed that he had “felt every metre”.
“It was quite hard,” he said of the three weeks. “I would have liked a few more sprints at this Giro but it is what it is.”
He added stage 19 and 20 were very hard, singling out stage 19 – some 166km to Champoluc with 4,900m of climbing – as “brutal”.
“That was really hard, especially with it being such a short stage and the time cut,” he said of that day, when his team mate Nicolas Prodhomme triumphed solo from the breakaway.
“I was disappointed with my performance,” he responded when asked to reflect on the race overall. “I would have liked to have been even in contention but I seemed to mess up each one (in a way) that I wasn’t even there.”
Bennett ended the race yesterday by placing 12th on the final stage in Rome, a city where he rounded out his breakthrough Giro in 2018 with his third stage win of the race.
Though his Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team mates were on the front in the final trying to position him and then lead him out, Visma Lease a Bike dominated at the head of the peloton in the crucial closing kilometres.
And when Wout van Aert was last lead-out man for Olav Kooij, doing a huge turn on the drag to the line, the Dutch sprinter stepped up to finish it off; taking his second victory of the race, having also won stage 12.
In contrast, though Bennett’s team tried their best to lead him out, they looked like they were struggling to even get to the front in the final kilometre yesterday. And when their effort was done, a long way from the line, Bennett had no option but try and slot into the riders at the front of the peloton about 15th wheel.
The pace at the front was so high, and the final turn by van Aert so powerful, that the ability of anyone to move up from 10th to 15th to genuinely compete for victory was nil, Kooij winning it well.
Of the other sprinters, the most versatile of them, Mads Pedersen (Lidl Trek), won four stages and the points classification. Casper van Uden (Team Picnic PostNL) claimed one bunch sprint victory, as did Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Bennett’s best result was 6th on stage 4 into Lecce, which was the only time he made it into the top 10. In his own words, that was a disappointing outcome, especially for a rider with 10 Grand Tour stage wins and who has claimed the points classification at the Tour de France.
However, he has spoken before of the way riding Grand Tours builds a rider’s engine. And he will be hoping that can be the case for him coming out of this Giro as there is plenty of racing to come in the second half of the season.
