“The season isn’t over yet; a ProTour contract is still the big goal for me”

Bennett (front, right) in an early escape at the European Championships in Goes (Photo: Rik Masil)

Fresh from taking 7th place at the U23 European Road Race Championships at the weekend, Ireland’s Sam Bennett says he is looking forward to the remainder of the season where UCI 1.1 races, the Tour of Britain and the U23 World Championships will fill his programme.

Bennett told stickybottle that while he would have liked to have taken a win by this point in the season, he remains determined to “have a cut at” the UCI 1.1 races his An Post-Sean Kelly team will be riding in the weeks ahead and says getting a contract with a ProTour team remains his objective.

“I just have it in my head to give some of the 1.1s a really good go, there’s a couple of months left in the season and a lot can happen even in a few weeks,” he said.

However, the Carrick native added that while a contract with a bigger team was his clear goal, he would be very happy to stay with An Post-Sean Kelly for 2013.

“The team really is like a home away from home; they look after you so well, I feel you get a lot of support. So, yeah, I would certainly be happy to stay. I would love to make that jump next year to the ProTour but I am probably missing that bit of consistency.”

Bennett added that in recent weeks his team manager Kurt Bogaerts had urged him to study his daily routine and to begin eating, sleeping and training at the same time each day with a view to getting into a rhythm to lose some weight.

“I’ve already dropped two kilos. I lost that in two weeks and I’m down to 70kgs now. I’d like to lose another one soon and I’m also a bit more focussed on power now when I’m training.”

As well as hoping to target some UCI 1.1 races before the season is out, he is also keen to do a ride on some of the stages in the Tour of Britain.

He would need to assess how riding that race might hamper his chances in the U23 World Championships road race in Holland just one week after the Tour of Britain finishes.

While happy with his ride at the Euros, if he had been just two places higher and gotten into the top five he would have secured international carding from the Irish Sports Council for next year; a decent level of funding for young riders like Bennett.

However, a last lap puncture followed by a long chase for the first portion of that final circuit was not ideal preparation for putting in the turn of speed he needed in the bunch sprint for bronze.

“I was third into the last corner and while I was able to sprint really hard out of it, because of the chase back on I probably didn’t have that bit of staying power in the last 150 metres or so.”

Bennett said the team rode really well for him.

“They gave up their own chances to ride for me and they really didn’t have to do that. In the early stages Jack Wilson was helping me a lot. When he was moving up the bunch he’d shout for me to get on the wheel and bring me up. I was really impressed with him; I thought he rode with great maturity.”

“At the start of the race we were on the line early because we wanted to get a good place right up at the front of the bunch. And then the start was delayed a bit so we were sitting there for about 30 minutes. Then from the gun the Dutch riders went straight on the front and lined it out. That really stung for around 5km, but after that it was OK.”

“It was one of those days where staying up in the bunch was hard; the elbows were out for most of the day, trying to keep your position.”

He said he expected the race to be battered by crosswinds and for echelons to form, as they had done at the ZLM Tour in the same region in recent years. While it quickly became clear the race was not going to be split by the breeze, Bennett said he still felt a large group of 20 or so riders would go clear.

At the halfway point he attacked alone after two riders who were away. They were then joined by another, making four up front. They worked well together and pulled out a gap, before around 15 more riders came up to them.

“I was committed to the break; everyone was riding through so I was thinking to myself ‘right, we’re away, this is it’. We were away for around 20kms or so and then the bunch came back at us from nowhere. I think there were a couple of teams riding on the front to take us back.”

He recovered from that effort after around two laps back in the peloton. With team mate Sean Downey helping him as the race hurtled towards the last couple of laps, disaster struck when Bennett punctured on the first corner of the last lap.

Efforts by Downey to push ahead and alert the Irish in the pits area to have a bike ready – no team cars were allowed on the circuit – were literally derailed when he crashed.

However, he recovered from that spill and Bennett got a bike change before the pair fought their way back to the bunch with around 10km remaining.

At that point, Bennett’s Ireland team mate Conor Dunne took him up to the top of the bunch, with Bennett sitting close to the front of the peloton in the last couple of kilometres.

“It was a question of just going for it. I’m amazed I’m sitting here with no road rash because I went for gaps that just weren’t there. Then at the very end you had the Italian train, the Dutch train and the British train, and I was just trying to time trial against them in the last 2kms.”

Results: U23 European Road Race Championships

172km in Goes, Holland
1 TRATNIK, Jan Slovenia 3:52:30
2 FLAKSIS, Andzs Latvia @ 1sec
3 WIPPERT, Wouter Netherlands @ 11secs
4 BERTILSSON, Christian Sweden
5 RUFFONI, Nicola Italy
6 JANS, Roy Belgium
7 BENNETT, Sam Ireland
8 SMIRNOVS, Andris Latvia
9 BONIFAZIO, Nicolo Italy
10 SILVESTRE, Fábio Portugal

54 BUGGLE, Aarron Ireland @ 18secs
76 DOWNEY, Sean Ireland @ 32secs
85 DUNNE, Conor Ireland @ 37secs
DNF LAVERY, Philip Ireland
DNF ENGLISH, Felix Ireland
DNF WILSON, Jack Ireland
(182 starters, 78 DNFs)