"At the end of 2022 I thought I was back" - Sam Bennett looking to move on from disappointing 2023
Cycling
Sam Bennett is hoping a fresh start in 2024 will be the catalyst for his return to the sprint elite after a disappointing final season at BORA - hansgrohe in 2023.
“I’ve had three frustrating years. I needed a fresh start,” Bennett has explained in conversation with Velo, ahead of starting his 2024 season with Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team. “I never got up and running, really. I had good moments, actually. At the end of 2022 I thought I was back. But I had a few hiccups and I was gone again. But we were looking back in the files and we could see little clues about where to improve. Little things that show us that it’s still there, and show what is needed to be done.”
With a move to a new team, Bennett also he working under a new coach next season, Stephen Barrett. “I’m excited to work with Sam,” Barrett told Velo. “I know what he did in 2020. We all do. The last time he rode the Tour de France he won the green jersey. For me, it’s the first time I’m going to coach a WorldTour Irish rider and that gives me a lot of motivation to really do the maximum we can to make sure he can win some races.”
“With Ben O’Connor, Bob Jungels, and Felix Gall, I’m three for three with Tour stage wins and Sam is my next target for 2024," he continues. “I’ve not coached a top class sprinter in the past, but I certainly have an eye for data. For me, the biggest thing that I look at is the demands of racing. And the demands of racing have changed quite a bit in the last five, six years."
What challenges face Barrett though, in the differences between coaching climbers and sprinters? “If you’re a climber, we know what you need to do in terms of watts per kilo. We know you need to be very, very good on the descents. We know you need to be extremely good in the time trial," Barrett explains. “I think now as well for sprinting, you need to be able to adapt to certain situations. There’s less reliance on the big leadout trains, for one."
“With Sam, when you go back and look at historical data, he doesn’t have the biggest threshold. So I think first of all, the biggest thing we can do is to increase his threshold. That in turn will increase his overall resilience, his durability, his fatigue resistance," concludes Bennett's coach. “If we can get Sam to the last 500 meters having expended the least amount of energy, then he should be able to apply his most power.”
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- What a travesty ! That little deviation did nothing to impede Brand !frieders307-11-2026
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