As he did last season, Sam Bennett is set to get his season under way in Australia.
The Carrick-on-Suir rider will travel south with his Bora-hansgrohe team and make his 2018 debut in the People’s Choice Classic in Adelaide on January 14th.
The 50km race is a criterium-style event and is well suited to Bennett’s abilities. Last January, he finished second behind Caleb Ewan, with his own teammate Peter Sagan in third.
Two days later Bennett will be at the start of the Santos Tour Down Under in Port Adelaide, and will seek the best possible results from the six-stage World Tour event.
Although he and the other European riders will be up against Australians who will already have plenty of racing in their legs, he will hope that his natural speed will see him to the fore if there are any bunch gallops.
Bennett also plans to defend the Race Melbourne title he won last year.
“It’s always nice to defend a title,” he said on Thursday, “although it’s the World Tour races really that matter.”
As he did last time, he will then ride the single-day Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
Bennett heads towards 2018 as a much more confident rider. His 2017 results included 10 pro victories, as well as a second and three third places on stages of the Giro d’Italia.
They are his best results to date in cycling’s Grand Tour races and he believes strongly that he can take a breakthrough victory at that level in the coming year.
Importantly, Bennett ended his 2017 season on a high with four stage wins in the Tour of Turkey. That boosted his morale and, after a scheduled short break from training, he knuckled down again to prepare for 2018.
Performance tests earlier this month showed he was making further progress and he is excited as the days count down to the start of another season.
