Sam Bennett will be back in action over the next week at the Four Days of Dunkirk looking for that elusive win that might kick start his season. The Irish sprinter has come close since the start of the campaign, with three podium finishes, but is yet to take what much be a confidence-boosting victory.
With his Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale enjoying a brilliant season to date, and the Tour de France now beginning to loom in the distance, the Carrick-on-Suir man has an ideal chance this week, in a field that is not stacked with top sprinting talent.
However, while 10-time Grand Tour stage winner and Tour green jersey victor Bennett is the main draw from an Irish perspective, there will be several other Irish riders on the start line when the race rolls out of Dunkirk tomorrow for the opening stage.
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Dillon Corkery is scheduled to ride for his St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93 team while former Irish road race champion Rory Townsend is in the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team selection. This is a race that both of those riders could take a result from, including a stage win if they got the rub of the green.
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The youngest Irish rider set to compete in France over the next six days is Dean Harvey, the Irish cyclocross champion riding with Trinity Racing.
The race, with 2.Pro ranking, will be the biggest stage race of the 21-year-old's career and should be a good test of his level, especially after riding well at the recent Tour of Brittany, where he was on team duties.
All six stages to come look like potential sprinter opportunities and with Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) and Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) are the only other established fastmen in the field, Bennett will have a great chance to get a win in the bag.
That would be an ideal to start the next section of the season, as the Tour de France nears, especially as he has only raced once in the last six weeks.
However, while Bennett, Ackermann and Démare are the obvious picks for the sprints - and are all chasing their first win of the year - other, up and coming, riders will also be out to take a victory.
