He can’t be overjoyed at his team support in this Vuelta. He’s super strong but the team aren’t giving him any chances.
I haven't been following closely but any news regarding his contract situation?He can’t be overjoyed at his team support in this Vuelta. He’s super strong but the team aren’t giving him any chances.
Assuming the break takes all the points tomorrow then Bennett would need to take all 29 points on Sunday to tie with Primoz.He suggested before the race (or after his first stage win, can't remember) that he'd like to have a tilt at the green Jersey comp. He also went for the intermediate sprint yesterday. I have a feeling he wants it a lot. Yesterday was great in that regard, he could have just as easily missed the break and got nothing. From early on he must have guessed it'd be hard to win the stage but he still picked up 24 points.... I suspect he made the calculation early on to get as many points as possible knowing that he's got two more chances to complete the hattrick of stages.
It is of course difficult to support a sprinter and a GC man with a team two men short. But in this race they have supported neither in a significantly useful way. They have stages and a decent GC place thanks almost entirely to the efforts of Bennett and Majka themselves.Didn’t they lose 2 or 3 to crashes at the start of the Vuelta? And Majka still has a gc position to work for, even if it isn’t (realistically) a podium, so you can’t expect him to pull much on a flat stage like today, with the final gc stage tomorrow. Edit; yeah, 2 abandons. Formolo and Muhlberger both crashed out, so they’re fighting on 2 fronts with 6 men.
I’d imagine they’ll be all-in for him to win on Sunday, but it’s understandable given their situation that they can’t give full support to a sprinter at the Vuelta, even if he is the best sprinter in the race.
With a bit of joined up thinking, they really ought to have had Bennett and Majka together near the front of the Guadalajara stage. Majka makes that split and suddenly he is in a podium battle.
Also there's only actually been two 'flat' finishes so far. He's been more competitive than I'd imagined he would be the last couple of stages.It’s also that there have only been a handful of stages where Bennett could realistically contend. Of those, he’s won 2 and been 2nd 3 times, out of 5 chances. Which is a pretty impressive strike rate by any measure.
They were five riders left at the end of the race and had a rider at 6th on GC. Hard to expect better support.If ever you needed an indication of how much bennett needs to leave Bora this vuelta has been it.. How in has he ended up with the same number of stage wins as jackobsen? Bora seem completely incapable of providing even the barest of leadout trains. He'd be as well off on a team consisting solely of himself.... That stage where he ended up on his own in the break with 6 quickstep guys, my god.
6th on GC versus possibly winning 4 or 5 stages? Personally I think that's utterly ridiculous.... Anyway, so they have to look after a top 10, fine. So he's behind Sagan, Ackermann and now majka despite being the most successful sprinter in the world. That's not good enough for Bennett. He deserves far better.They were five riders left at the end of the race and had a rider at 6th on GC. Hard to expect better support.
I know they have been together for years but I feel Bennett may have outgrown Archibald as he just doesn't look quick enough to keep him in place6th on GC versus possibly winning 4 or 5 stages? Personally I think that's utterly ridiculous.... Anyway, so they have to look after a top 10, fine. So he's behind Sagan, Ackermann and now majka despite being the most successful sprinter in the world. That's not good enough for Bennett. He deserves far better.
Bennett is not the best sprinter in the world. He's close, and worthy of the discussion, but not the best.6th on GC versus possibly winning 4 or 5 stages? Personally I think that's utterly ridiculous.... Anyway, so they have to look after a top 10, fine. So he's behind Sagan, Ackermann and now majka despite being the most successful sprinter in the world. That's not good enough for Bennett. He deserves far better.
It's hard to tell when not doing Le Tour.Bennett is not the best sprinter in the world. He's close, and worthy of the discussion, but not the best.
I said he's the most successful. Which he currently is. More WT wins than any other rider in the peloton.Bennett is not the best sprinter in the world. He's close, and worthy of the discussion, but not the best.
Maybe. He’s the best all round sprinter at the moment, meaning combined flat big bunch sprinter and uphill / hard course sprinter. In terms of big bunch sprinting alone, it’s hard to separate the very top tier from each other, Bennett, Groenewegen, Ewan, Viviani, even Ackermann. I wouldn’t feel comfortable definitively saying that any of those five is “not the best”. On the basis of this season alone, I tend to think it’s between Bennett and Ewan, but I’m far from certain about it and if you take a slightly longer view over two seasons you could argue it’s between Groenewegen and Viviani. Depending on which bits of data you place most emphasis on there’s a good case for any of them being “the best”.Bennett is not the best sprinter in the world. He's close, and worthy of the discussion, but not the best.
I agree that he’s not much lesser, but being even slightly lesser means you aren’t the best of the best right now, which is what that list was talking about. Jakobsen is the best of the very young guys, is already close to the very best and will almost certainly be on any such list soon enough.Well add Jakobsen to the list above (with ackermann etc), because he showd he is clearly not much lesser.
I think alot of it has to do with how much his star has risen this year and some other transfer movements. Even after his Giro last year I never thought a team as big as DQ would want him but he has been so solid this year and I doubt anyone saw Vivian I to Confidis happening.Denk über Bennett: “Wenn er gehen will, soll er gehen“ | radsport-news.com
www.radsport-news.com
I always understood that Bennett had given a verbal agreement to stay. Here however Denk claims that there was even a written agreement by Bennett. If that's the case I can't blame Bora at all. The real question is: why did Bennett ever made such an agreement in the first place? Was he so unsure about his chances of getting another contract somewhere else? Or was it another F***-Up by McQuaid? Very strange.
In other news the article also mentions the possibility of Bora signing another new younger rider. I guess Patrick Gamper would then be the most logical choice.
The one and only time Bennett and Ackermann were both contesting the same finish, Bennett boxed Ackermann in and Ackermann tried to go right through him. Between the two of them they took each other out of the sprint and nearly caused a pileup despite being on the same team. I’d say the two lads are very keen to have another go at each other.Also its a pity the TDF has gone Vuelta this year as it limits the chance of seeing Sam up against old teammates but hopefully we get to see him against Ackermann or Sagan at top form at some stage next year