In the pro peloton, the art of sprinting has changed in recent years. New names are also emerging fast and they are already among the very best. However, some of the older speedsters are not finished yet. In the middle of it all is Sam Bennett, the Irishman with very little still to prove after beating the best again and again.
However, now aged 32 years, having missed the last two editions of the Tour de France and not finished a Grand Tour since 2020, where does Bennett rank in the current sprint game? Though he has won races this year and last season, has he really hit the same form he displayed before his 2021 knee injury? And in a contract year, will he even get to the Tour de France this season considering the management figures and priorities inside his Bora-hansgrohe team?
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In short, is Sam Bennett still capable of being the prolific winner he was over the peak four-year period of his career? This deep dive into his place in the current era seeks to answer those questions.
Has he recaptured his pre-injury form?
Bennett has won 60 UCI-ranked races in his career, from 2008 to the current year, that's 16 seasons. He has always won races but his career really took off in 2017, when he took his first World Tour win at Paris-Nice and then scored four more at the Tour of Turkey at the end of that season. In 2018 (seven wins), 2019 (thirteen wins), 2020 (seven wins) and to May, 2021 (seven wins) he was a winning machine. But he suffered a knee injury in June 2021 and he has won four races in the two years since that time.
While Bennett won a race - Eschborn-Frankfurt (1.UWT) - in May of last year he otherwise struggled for form for much of 2022. He finally had a breakthrough at La Vuelta in late August, winning two stages before being forced out of that race with Covid-19 just before stage 10. This year he has already won a race; claiming the opening stage at Vuelta a San Juan Internacional (2.Pro). However, as June begins and the Tour de France now looms, the Irishman is still searching for a second victory in 2023.
That said, he has come very close on several occasions this year, taking four 2nd places since his win in Argentina on the first day of his season, January 22nd. In his last outing, Tour de Hongrie, he was beaten by a tiny margin for victory on stage 1 by Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco AlUla). However, in some of the other sprints, he did not get as close.
And that has perhaps been the case for Bennett - with the exception of last year's Vuelta - since his return from his injury two years ago. He has at times looked as fast as ever - winning or going close - but has not been consistently at that level. He's been in fewer potentially race-winning positions and so has taken fewer victories.
He goes into Critérium du Dauphiné (2.UWT), starting tomorrow, with a real chance to get himself on track. Bennett has spoken in the past of the need to build his engine with racing so he can get to the finishes fresher for the final sprint. The one time since his knee injury he appeared to have cracked that was at last year's Vuelta. He can do it again - and very likely will - possibly starting as soon as tomorrow in Chambon-sur-Lac. It would be no surprise if he popped up and won again over the next week, especially as this is a field which is not stacked with sprinters. Groenewegen and Bennett are the only five-star pure sprinters in the race, though Ethan Vernon (Soudal-Quick Step) is shaping up and will also be there. Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) and Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) are also likely to feature in any sprints from trimmed back bunches.
While Bennett has not recaptured his pre-injury form, he is still young enough to make it happen. Last year's Vuelta proved the old adage that class is permanent. This coming week would be a great time to re-find his race-winning shape, especially with the Tour approaching and having been left out of the Bora-hansgrohe team for that race last season.
New sprint rivals
Olav Kooij (Jumbo Visma), Arnaud De Lie (Dstny Lotto), Ethan Vernon (Soudal-QuickStep), Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) are the newly minted top sprinters of the moment; still all aged between 20 and 23 years. Despite their youth, they each have lots of wins under their belts and are able to beat anyone on their day.
They have emerged in the period since mid 2021 when Bennett suffered his injury. Sam Welsford (Team DSM) will be a new name to some, though the 27-year-old Australian is just getting going in road sprinting after a track career. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is not a new rider, but he's just turned 25-years-old so he is definitely part of the younger generation. Likewise, Gerben Thijssen (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) is aged 24 years and can win in sprints, though he hasn't yet reached the level of the others.
Then we have the older guys who are all, to a greater or lesser extent, capable of winning big bunch sprints: Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep), Arnaud Démare (Groupama FDJ), Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan), Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers), Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team), Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco AlUla), Caleb Ewan (Lotto Dstny), Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) and Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), among others.
The biggest change in the sprint game in the last two years is the emergence of Kooij, De Lie, Milan, Vernon and Girmay. They are going to win a lot of races and those wins will come at the expense of the long-established group of sprinters, including Bennett. And while we are familiar with Philipsen for a while now, in the period that Bennett was out injured, and then trying to find his form again, Philipsen really bloomed as a sprinter. He has become one of the very best in the world. He is a completely different athlete now compared to the rider he was when Bennett so regularly beat him in 2020 and the first half of 2021.
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With the selection of sprinting talent having increased, Bennett and the other established riders are going to have to be as good as ever - indeed better - if they want to win races as regularly as they have until now. The sprinting battle in major races is perhaps better now than it has been at any time since Bennett broke through to the big time - with three wins in Giro d'Italia 2018. Because of that, it will be a big challenge for him to re-establish himself as the dominant force he was from late 2017 to the first half of 2021. That's not to say he can't do it. But it's going to be harder now than it would have been even a year or two ago.
How does Bennett's lead-out compare?
This is where we believe Bennett has the edge over everyone, even Fabio Jakobsen with Michael Mørkøv as his final lead-out man at Soudal-QuickStep. Teams like Lotto Dstny, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Groupama FDJ, Jayco AlUla and Trek-Segafredo can all do very good lead-outs for their fast men. But when one wants to debate which team has the very best lead-out, there are only two options - Bennett's Bora-hansgrohe and Jakobsen's Soudal-QuickStep.
Both Bora-hansgrohe and Soudal-QuickStep can impose themselves at the front of a bunch in a finale. They both have the strength in depth to ensure their sprinter stays at or around the front inside the final 5km. However, Bora-hansgrohe has developed an especially effective approach. Ryan Mullen is, somehow, able to do the job solo in many races. He has been a revelation in the way he can always find his way to the font, always has the legs for the role. He's constantly where he needs to be, with two or three team mates on his wheel, in that vital period between, say, 5km and 1km to go. Sometimes it's just Bennett and his final lead-out man Danny van Poppel on Mullen's wheel. At other times, Shane Archbold is with them.
From 1km to go, once Mullen and his opposite number (or numbers) in Soudal-QuickStep have their sprinter and final lead-out man in position, then comes the role of that last lead-out rider. For years Mørkøv was the best, without question. He said a few years ago that if he had been leading out Nacer Bouhanni at the Tour de France the French sprinter would have several Tour stage wins on his palmares, rather than none. Few could argue with that. However, last year two things happened. It looked suspiciously like age was finally beginning to creep up on Mørkøv. At the same time, Van Poppel came into his own.
When Van Poppel initially took over as Bennett's final lead-out man at the start of last year he looked like a sprinter leading out another sprinter; an uneven effort that was all kick rather than a smoother and longer output of power. However, Van Poppel very quickly found his feet. He is as good as piloting Bennett to the front as Mørkøv ever was and when he kicks, he looks much faster than Mørkøv. Mullen and Van Poppel have combined to achieve the seemingly impossible; provide a better lead-out for Bennett than Soudal-QuickStep can for Jakobsen, even though they have masterful Mørkøv. The 2020 Tour de France green jersey winner, Bennett, chose very wisely when brining in his own personnel on rejoining Bora-hansgrohe at the start of last season.
Chances of winning at Tour de France 2023?
There will be plenty of top sprinters in the Tour if most of the provisional team plans come to pass; Philipsen, Cavendish, Coquard, Démare, Girmay, Van Aert, Jakobsen, Groenewegen, Ewan, Nizzolo and Kristoff are all pencilled in at present. Cavendish believes there are "seven or eight" chances for sprinters, hence the likelihood of lots of those fast men making the start line in Bilbao on July 1st.
Bennett is currently in the Bora-hansgrohe team plans for the French Grand Tour. If he is selected, Mullen will also be in the line-up for a debut ride in the sport's biggest race. However, having been omitted from the team very late in the day last year, there are no guarantees this time around. Bennett really needs a win to make sure of his place in the Tour peloton and Critérium du Dauphiné is the place to do it. Indeed, it will likely be his last chance.
Bora-hansgrohe now has a Grand Tour winner in its roster - Jai Hindley - and will back him for general classification in this year's Tour. Bennett should lead the other half of the team; hunting for sprint stage wins. Last year the team was initially scheduled to split the line-up in the same way, with Aleksandr Vlasov for GC and Bennett for stages. But before the start, management decided to go all-in for Vlasov, with Bennett and Mullen missing out as a result.
It is possible they may do the same again; throw everything behind Hindley and pick the team accordingly. However, the sheer number of sprinters' chances should mean Bennett is picked, especially if he can take a stage win at Critérium du Dauphiné over the next week. We simply won't know until much closer to the Tour. But the reality is the team left Bennett at home last year and it could do so again. We're not suggesting that's what's going to happen, but it might.
One complicating factor is Vlasov's withdrawal from the recent Giro. The Russian had based his entire winter and early season around the Italian Grand Tour but fell ill on the race and had to withdraw during stage 10. His rate of recovery since then is unclear and it is also not known if he could start the Tour. However, if a Tour start is in the offing for him, that may tempt Bora-hansgrohe management to go with a general classification line-up. They could opted for a two-pronged approach with Hindley and Vlasov as team leaders or the Russian picked as a deluxe domestique for Hindley.
If Bennett is picked for the Tour, and has lead-out support, has past record of coming good when the pressure is on says he can be a stage winner. However, the biggest question centres on what kind of rider line-up his team management will opt for. Bennett would really help himself with a win in the coming week.
Conclusion
The stakes are high at present for Bennett, especially with younger sprinters coming through and pro cycling's tendency towards very young athletes in recent years. But if Bennett can win at Critérium du Dauphiné that will likely guarantee his place in the Tour team. (His place may already be assured, we just don't know yet). We think he will win a stage at the Tour if he is picked; a win that would confirm his standing at the top of the sport and likely lead to more success before the end of the season.
But a winless Critérium du Dauphiné, followed by non-selection for the Tour, would be a blow. However, Bennett is a confidence rider; once he takes one win others tend to follow very quickly. If anyone can come good right in the nick of time, Bennett can. But despite all his success for well over a decade - the many great days he's given Irish cycling - the next week is an absolutely crucial one for the Carrick-on-Suir rider.
