Sam Bennett is back in at a deep end on Volta Ciclista a Catalunya and looking to make the best of a week of 'hard yards' (Photo: Luis Angel Gomez-Cor Vos)
Sam Bennett (Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) said while he expected his recovery period after his recent cardiac ablation procedure to take two weeks, it had taken two months
As a result, he now needed to improve his condition and was hoping this week, racing at Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (2.UWT), can really help get him back on track, though he conceded he had found the racing “quite hard” so far.
"Everything is going good, I'm just building up still," said the 35-year-old ten-time Grand Tour stage winner. "I think the base fitness is okay. I'm missing a bit of the top end, and the repeatability.
"But I'm here now to try and build some form, see how I get on day-by-day. And it should be a bit of a character building week. We'll see how we get on."
Advertisement
Bennett has been working for the team so far, with three stages now complete. And, as yesterday’s stage 3 was the final possible chance for the sprinters, the terrain now gets much tougher.
There are three climbers' finishes over the next three days and a challenging, undulating, circuit to finish on Sunday in Barcelona.
Related News
Bennett added while the timeframe of his recovery had been much longer than he was first told, he was glad to be back racing.
"They said 'you should be able to start training after two weeks' but it really took two months," he said. "And then I started back really in the middle of January, so it took a bit of time.
"But I just wanted to be sure that it was healthy and progressive. It's all in the right direction now, and hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can get back to good level where I'm competing in the races.
“At the minute I'm here, but it is quite hard. So I'm just floating about trying to do the best I can," he said of being towards the back of the field on the three stages so far, though a finish in this race is all he really needs at this point.
As well as coming back from a heart scare, after his heart rate shot up and was very irregular on a trip to London last November, Bennett is also now getting used to new surroundings within Pinarello Q36.5.
He raced for the past two years with French World Tour team Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale but during the off-season announced he was moving to Pinarello Q36.5 on a one-year contract.
Fellow Irishman Eddie Dunbar has also joined the team this year, on a two-year contract, after leaving Team Jayco AlUla, with whom he rode for the past three seasons.
