Irish sprinter Sam Bennett has confirmed that he will race for the first time this year at the upcoming UAE Tour, which will begin on Sunday week, February 20th, and run for seven days.
Bennett won two stages plus the green jersey at the 2020 Tour de France and was arguably the best sprinter in the peloton. He missed several months racing last season due to a knee injury sustained in early June, a problem which saw him unable to compete in the Tour.
Speaking to The Irish Times on Friday, he revealed that he will line out in the UAE Tour, but that he has limited ambitious for that race. “It will be more getting back into the rhythm of racing, trying to get in the rhythm with the teammates and with the leadout train,” he said. “Expectations aren’t high, just because the form is taking longer to build up.”
Fine-tuning his interaction with his sprint leadout will be an important target early on. Following two years with the Deceuninck-QuickStep squad in 2020 and 2021, he has moved back to the Bora-hansgrohe setup he previously competed with. There will be several new riders in his leadout train, including Irish national champion Ryan Mullen, and syncing well with them in the sprints will be vital.
However, a more immediate goal is to become competitive again. Missing months of training and competition and riding a total of just four races in September and October means that he is behind where he normally is at this time of year.
“It will be a few months now until I really get going,” he said. “But we have planned this, we have planned a slower build-up into the season to make sure that the body is safe and sound, and that it get used to the load again. Sprinting is hard on the tendons and the joints.
“It will take a while, so I probably will get a bit of hardship from media. But I know it is all part of the process. I will get there eventually. It is good to be starting with the team, it is exciting. We will see how things go.”
