George Bennett says goodbye to his soon-to-be former employer UAE Team Emirates: "It's time to move on"
Cycling
George Bennett will not race for UAE Emirates next year. The Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport already published this news last month, but now Bennett has also made himself heard on Instagram.
He was unable to reach this high level in the UAE Emirates kit. Bennett was brought into the team as climbing domestique for leader Tadej Pogacar. However, last year he dropped out early in the Tour de France, while this year he did not ride a grand tour at all. He recently finished seventh in the Tour of Austria and sixth in the Vuelta a Burgos.
"I have experienced some beautiful, but also difficult moments in recent years. I want to thank the great group of riders for the fun we had along the way. It's been great meeting new people and making friends, but now it's time to move on. Thank you again!" Bennett now says via social media.
It is still unclear where Bennett's sporting future lies. His name was associated with Soudal Quick-Step, but team manager Patrick Lefevere said in a column a month ago that the transfer of the experienced climber is not as certain as previously written. "Many stories are now appearing in the press that we would bring in George Bennett to strengthen the climbing train next year. Until further notice: at the moment he has only been offered to me by managers from all sides."
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- Jonas is good but his wins were due to Visma team tactics and Pogacar riding naively, in one case, and Pogacar not being fully prepared, on the second occasion. Pogacar (and UAE) have become smarter tactically - far less wasted energy and more protection for the team leader - since 2022, and barring further injury or illness for Tadej it's hard to see Jonas winning another Tour.Renz03-01-2025
- Not sure we can say that UAE isn't good at developing riders. Their young ones have achieved impressive results (Ayuso, del Toro, Morgado, Christen, etc) and at the same time some veterans have done really well with a move to UAE (Yates, Wellens, Pollitt)mobk03-01-2025
- Unfair assessment to Jonas. Sure Tadej is awesome, but until last year he often had tough days in grand Tours. Jonas meanwhile was a model of consistency. In 2022 he took a minute or more on Tadej twice, while Tadej never managed the same on Jonas. In 2023 Jonas took a minute or more three times against a Tadej recovering from injury. In 2024 Tadej was definitely untouchable. If both of them are healthy in 2025 we will see how much of the 2024 difference was due to Tadej upping his game and how much was due to Jonas's injury. Should be a good one!mobk03-01-2025
- Plenty of pros still do very long rides with mortal friends.Veganpotter03-01-2025
- Jonas shouldn't have won the 2022 Tour, Tadej made mistakes that cost him that Tour. Jonas earned his 2023 Tour hands down. Jonas and Tadej are very close in capability when they are both healthy.awp03-01-2025
- We haven’t had healthy vs healthymij03-01-2025
- This numpty mustn't have been paying attention in 2023 when Jonas won by over 7 minutes. Not exactly close.joebloggs03-01-2025
- i think you’d accept that the oil money is still in service of an agenda that ends with profit. it may not require profit from the team itself, but it’s still part of a MARKETING strategy that ultimately is profit driven.OCexile02-01-2025
- what i was saying is that more money being dumped into a sport is a sign that it IS growing in popularity, because major corporations don’t just take a complete flyer on some sport or league without metrics to justify it. everybody who says YES has to justify that yes, especially if the results are anything less than projected.OCexile02-01-2025
- Translation: My old training partners would laugh at me if I attributed my new abilities to new training methods.Sweep02-01-2025