Sam Bennett runner-up at the UAE Tour upon returning to competition: "We can be really pleased with how things went today"

The last time Sam Bennett had reached the finish of a stage had been on the Volta ao Algarve back in May of 2021. Since then he had been the target of a series of threats and claims from Patrick Lefevere which ended up in the Irish sprinter moving back to his old colours of BORA - hansgrohe. 9 months later, he has returned to high level competition and was very close to the win at the UAE Tour.

“Because my form isn't quite at 100% yet, we didn't have such high expectations today. Our goal was to work on our leadout and learn how to best ride together. We took a bit of a risk, and started the leadout late, but it worked out very well in the end," Bennett said.

With the astonishingly simple stage finale today the BORA leadout took an unorthodox approach to the sprint, hanging in the tail of the peloton until as late as 4.8 kilometers to go. That however was not lack of attention, but instead the tactics the German team took, almost succeeding along the way. Bennett finished second on the sprint just narrowly beat by Jasper Philipsen who went on to continue on his success of 2021.

"The guys did a great job in a stressful situation, and this performance is of course very confidence-boosting for us. I think our performances will only get better from here. We can be really pleased with how things went today. Thanks again to the team for their amazing work and for putting their trust in me," he added.

With three more opportunities on hand, Bennett has the possibility of returning to his winning ways at UAE.