By Shane Stokes
Bora-hansgrohe has clarified the circumstances around Sam Bennett’s withdrawal from the Classic Brugge-De Panne race on Wednesday, saying that the rider’s decision to drop out was made largely to ensure he would be in shape for Sunday’s important Gent-Wevelgem goal.
Bennett caught a cold during Paris-Nice and withdrew from that event, then crashed out of Milan-San Remo. The team had hoped he would be good by Wednesday’s event but on a cold and wet day in Belgium, he withdrew long before the finish.
“It was basically a measure to save Gent-Wevelgem,” the team’s head coach Dan Lorang explained to Sticky Bottle on Friday. “There was still something [illness – ed.] inside from Paris-Nice and we wanted to make sure that he is 100 percent healthy in Gent-Wevelgem.”
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Bennett won the Classic Brugge-De Panne in 2021 but, according to Lorang, his participation in the event this time around was down to a couple of other factors rather than just hoping for a good result.
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“It was also that we don’t have so many riders [available] at the moment,” he said, talking about why the Irishman lined out when he still wasn’t quite at 100 percent. “In a WorldTour race you always have to start with your full roster.
“We [also] wanted to make it as a training [effort], but pull out at the moment when we see that it makes no sense [to continue].
“That is why he went out there, and we hope that he will be ready for Sunday.”
Bennett has ridden Gent-Wevelgem six times during his career, with a best finish of 12th in 2014. Two years ago he was in the break but ate too much and ended up vomiting and losing his place in the move.
He said then that he had learned a lot from the race and hoped to get stronger and to fight for victory one day.
