By Shane Stokes
Sam Bennett was hamstrung by injury towards the end of the 2025 season, prompting a lot of stress about finding a new deal. However he also had some very encouraging signs to carry into 2026.
Newly signed to the Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling outfit, he fully believes he can get back to big wins next year. The reason for that confidence?
What he was able to do a few weeks ago, despite being injured at the time.
“What is funny is that I was hitting all my personal bests in September,” Bennett told stickybottle. “From my one minute, my three minute, my five minutes, my 10 minutes.”
That’s encouraging, and so too a sense of self-belief which remains strong despite a frustrating couple of years.
“I just want to be normal again,” he said. “I want to be my best. If I can be normal and consistent, I’ll get the results.
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“I want to win bike races. I want to get my 10 plus wins a year, and to win at World Tour level. I had a second place in the WorldTour race this year, but I hadn’t won in a WorldTour since the Vuelta in 2022.
“But I know it’s still there. The thing that keeps me going is that I get glimpses that it’s still in there. I wouldn’t waste anybody’s time if I thought I’d never get there again.
“It’s still there. It’s not me going to another team trying to just, like, fizzle out. If that was the case, I wouldn’t continue. I wouldn’t do that to people.”
Turning down solid early-season offers
Bennett was once the very best sprinter in pro cycling. He won two stages plus the green jersey in the 2020 Tour de France and looked set to repeat that dominance at the Tour when he won all around him in the spring of 2021.
But then he suffered a knee injury and hardly competed for the rest of the year.
In 2022 he missed out on selection for the Tour but did take two stages in the Vuelta a España. He appeared set to go head to head with Mads Pedersen in the battle for the points jersey, but a dose of Covid-19 took him out of the race.
That marked the last time he took victory at the WorldTour level.
Moving to Decathlon-Ag2r-La Mondiale was supposed to reignite his career but while he notched up nine wins in two years there, they weren’t at the same scale as during his best seasons.
Missing selection for this year’s Tour was a blow, and left him in a race against time to find a pro deal for next season.
“I had interest at the start of the year, a little bit in the middle,” he revealed, confirming teams had initially sought his signature. “I’ve always backed myself throughout my career, and I wasn’t really happy with the offers.
“Then all of a sudden, I was like, ‘oh shit. It’s, it’s October here.’ The first time it really hit me that it was getting to the end of the year was when I saw the leaves falling off the trees.
“I didn’t have a contract yet then. I was like, ‘oh…crap.’”
Passing over those early offers suddenly seemed like it had been a risky move. However he also knew he needed to be in the right place if he was to return to really big results.
“I wanted to be in a team environment that was really motivating to push forward,” Bennett said, explaining his reasoning. “That it wasn’t a team to just finish out my career.
“I want to get the best out of myself, and I’m still motivated to be one of the best sprinters in the world. I just needed a team environment that matched that.”
Fortunately he got the exact contract he needed.
Reuniting with a key figure from the past
Those who have followed Bennett’s career know he is someone who is very influenced by morale. That’s the case for a lot of sprinters, but it seems to be particularly so with him. When things are going well he gets on a roll and racks up win after win.
Conversely, there have been a couple of times in his career when he has lost momentum and it has taken time and careful guidance to turn things around.
The 2013 season is a case in point. Bennett was competing with the An Post Sean Kelly Chain Reaction team then and, having been affected on and off by injury for a couple of seasons, things came to a head that summer.
He became demoralised and seriously considered leaving the sport, but his-then team manager Kurt Bogaerts and Kelly himself worked closely with him. They gave him the self-belief he needed, and helped get things back on track.
Bennett duly won a stage of the Tour of Britain ahead of some of the biggest stars in the sport and, with that, secured his first pro contract.
A dozen years later he is linking up with Bogaerts once again. Both have achieved a lot in the sport in the intervening years, with Bennett taking dozens of victories and Bogaerts progressing through the ranks as a valued coach.
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The latter worked closely with Tom Pidcock in recent seasons and played an important role in helping the Briton to third overall in this year’s Vuelta.
Now both are hoping that the magic they worked in autumn 2013 can be recreated once again.
“It’s just how invested he is,” Bennett said, explaining how Bogaerts can get the best out of people. “When he believes, you see the belief in him. It’s motivating. You want it yourself, of course, but then you also want to do it for how much he puts into it."
Bennett continues: “Kurt has a great mind and a great way of thinking about it. Breaking it down to make it more simple. He’s great if he doesn’t have the answers, finding the person that does, and great at putting the team together to get all the information, and to get the most out of the riders.
“I went to the [training] camp and you can see how Kurt has also grown from the An Post days. He’s a different guy since then, and a different manager. It’s quite cool to see. It’s also cool for the two of us to come back together. We’re both at much higher points in the sport with a lot of success, so that is quite cool as well.”
Bennett sounds upbeat and enthusiastic.
“I’m excited to see what we can do and how we’ll do, where we can take it next year.”
Everything at the right pace
Bennett was prominent in season three of the Netflix Tour de France documentary, which was filmed in at the 2024 race and released this year.
He came across as someone under a lot of pressure, being very self-critical at points. The new manager of the team didn’t help things, appearing simultaneously heavy handed and utterly unfamiliar with the sport.
His dealings with Bennett in the show appeared to be exactly the opposite of the steady encouragement that someone like Bogaerts will bring.
Still, Bennett isn’t critical of Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale, describing his time there as ‘an amazing opportunity.’
He said he appreciated his time there and the efforts that people put in.
“Everything was there for me to perform realistically. Unfortunately it didn’t click,” he said. “And in cycling, it just sometimes happens. That’s sport, it just didn’t happen. I wish I could have done more for them, and I wish I rewarded them for their efforts, but it just didn’t happen.
“So I’m not sitting here with any regrets or anything. I appreciated my time with Decathlon.”
Still, there is a sense that things could and should work out much better with Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling.
“I’m going now to a new team with people who also believe in me. And I’m going back to work with Kurt,” Bennett said.
“He launched my professional career, and got me to where I am today, really. And having him backing me, looking what I need to do, and pushing me … I think I can perform there and do great things there.”
Having been part of big teams for most of his pro career, switching to an up and coming squad reminds Bennett of the early days at Bora-Hansgrohe.
That was a Pro Continental team when he joined it but then, under the impetus that Peter Sagan, he and others provided, it progressed to WorldTour within three years.
Bennett notes that Pidcock added to its momentum this season, saying that a rider such as that can raise a team. He noted the squad’s presence in the bunch was bigger in 2025 and that the jersey had more clout in the bunch.
That gives him encouragement for 2026.
“I think they’re going to grow again next year. To be part of that is fantastic. And, maybe it sounds selfish, but I can benefit from that.”
What’s important now for Bennett is to build steadily, to get over any lingering issues from his crash in the Tour de Pologne and to rebuild both his form and his momentum.
He wants to get back to winning ways as soon as possible, but what is encouraging is that Bogaerts is more focussed on doing things exactly right rather than looking for early results.
“I was there sitting in a team meeting, saying, ‘okay, we need to start at this date,’” Bennett said. “And Kurt got me to step back and say, ‘look, you start when you’re ready.’
“It was there I saw that, okay, I’m not just going to be thrown into races here. He is looking out for my best interests.”
Despite Bennett’s sense of urgency to win again, he can see the bigger picture too.
“That there showed me that I made the right decision. It showed me that this is the best environment for me to be the best I can possibly be.
“To be in the best place possible, it’s going to be given all of the responsibility over to them and following everything they say to do, and trusting the process.
“It’s the support and environment I want to be in. To be honest, it’s the perfect fit. I really think I can get the best out of myself here.”
