George Bennett: "We expect war every day"

UAE Team Emirates have taken the yellow jersey in Longwy and have controlled the stage all day long en route to Planche des Belles Filles so as to launch Tadej Pogacar into the stage win. However, with the high mountains looming ahead, a new challenge will come for the defending champion's team.

“Tadej is the best rider I’ve seen in my life, but I also know Primož and Jumbo is such a good team and maybe you don’t beat him one on one, but you set up little situations," Bennett told Velonews, putting more attention onto the Slovenian and not on Jonas Vingegaard who sits second in the overall classification. "They have the advantage of having two guys that are dangerous. That just means that Tadej needs guys a strong team around him, which he does and the stronger you are, the more everybody tries to flick you, so you need a better team.

Bennett has been given the task of protecting Pogacar in the mountains. Alongside Rafal Majka, Brandon McNulty and Marc Soler, the group will have a tough task controlling the race ahead of the expected attacks from Jumbo-Visma and INEOS Grenadiers. The Kiwi is ready for when that happens, and it can be as soon as tomorrow.

“As you become a better rider, you need a better team. We brought a good team here. I expect, I don’t know what day it will be, but there will be one day where it goes absolutely apeshit. Primož goes in the break, Sepp [Kuss] drops everybody, you know," he added. "There’s going to be a situation where we really need to be ready, so we never underestimate them. We expect war every day. Maybe it’s a sprint stage and they put their big guys in the crosswinds. I’ve done enough crazy stages.”

“Every day in yellow is good and I think we survived the first week really well. We got a little bit of criticism because we weren’t lined up with all eight guys doing the old trains, but Tadej had guys with him," Bennett pointed out. Over social media the criticism was far sharper towards Jumbo-Visma, who have struggled with crashes and mechanicals towards Arenberg and saw Primoz Roglic shed crucial time.

However, Bennett remains very cautious regarding his former teammates: "You also saw today how strong Jonas and Primož were so we’re going to have a really big battle. As a fan of cycling, I’m looking forward to it.” This morning Vegard Stake Laengen abandoned the race with Covid-19, bad news for the team not only in the reduction of firepower but also with the risk that now runs through the team.