🎙 @Sammmy_Be "On ne va pas prendre de risque, on va faire notre course et voir comment ça se passe." “We’ll have to go in and race and see what happens (limit risk)” #ParisNice
Sam Bennett rues current lack of form: "I’ll get there but I just need more time"
CyclingThursday, 10 March 2022 at 10:00
Despite a decent return to racing at the UAE Tour where he featured in the podium on two stages, BORA - hansgrohe's Sam Bennett has been unable to repeat those results at Paris-Nice and quotes a relative lack of form for it.
“I just don’t have it. I’m a month or two behind where I need to be. Yesterday [stage two] I was in the group for the sprint but I couldn’t even get up near the guys when we came out of the corner with 400 meters to go. I got out of the saddle and went slower. I’ll get there but I just need more time.” On the second stage of Paris-Nice Bennett made the decisive echelons with team leader Aleksandr Vlasov and Ryan Mullen. He was in a good position to go fight for the stage win - which was taken by Fabio Jakobsen - but finished only 33rd in the back of the reduced peloton.
He adds: “I’d say it’s possible for me to win bunch sprints now if everything goes right, but in Paris-Nice it doesn’t really happen like that. If you had a slower day and just a fast final with no real points where you need to use a lot of power, then you can find a way. But there’s just no hiding if not. Yesterday I struggled even to ride with the guys in the echelons. So in Paris-Nice it’s not possible, but maybe in another race, it’s possible. But I know myself I’m a month or two behind.”
“Everything’s going great with the lead-outs, I’m the weak link in the chain just now. In the UAE Tour, they got me to 200 meters four times out of four. But there were two sprints where I couldn’t even think straight. It was me that was the issue, but I have to be happy with the job they did for me," he concluded.
Bennett is likely to stay at Paris-Nice to try and build some form for the spring. He's scheduled to ride Milano-Sanremo although with the current form it'll be hard to be within the fight for the win. At the Brugge-De Panne - which he won last season -, Dwars door Vlaanderen and Scheldprisj, the Irish sprinter will hope for some better form.
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