The crash that shook Bennett
Last week George Bennett was hit by a car. It was the second time within the space of 12 months that he had been hit by a vehicle while out on a training ride.
But neither of those incidents rank as the Lottonl-jumbo rider’s most frightening moment on the bike.
Bennett says there is simply not enough time to be scared when the impact arrives so suddenly – unable to even reach the brakes before skidding across the roof in the most recent crash.
‘‘When you actually crash it hurts too much. You’re not thinking about it. You don’t have time to be scared,’’ he said.
Instead, the 28-year-old said the near misses or seeing another rider in distress are the moments that have haunted him the most.
And at the top of the list, he said, was an incident which occurred at last year’s Tour de France – when he came across stricken riders Richie Porte and Dan Martin.
Porte had crashed while descending Mont du Chat. He was going 70kmh. He broke his collarbone and pelvis. Martin, the next rider to follow, hurtled into Porte as he unable to react quick enough. He fractured two vertebrae but remarkably went on to finish the race.
Bennett said the horror scene left him in shock.
‘‘We had been ripping down a wet downhill at 80kmh. It’s renowned as one of the scariest downhills and it was right down to the finish line.
‘‘I saw the stretchers and it just got in my head a little bit,’’ he said.
‘‘I had to relearn how to go downhill because I couldn’t get around the corners. You just had to put it outside your head and still go downhill in the wet at full noise. It was a challenge.
‘‘That was the scariest moment but there’s been a lot more scary moments like [thinking] am I going to get a job this year?. And all sorts of things that aren’t directly related to crashing off your bike.’’
After walking away from last week’s crash with bruises and a sore shoulder, which Lottonljumbo continue to monitor, Bennett went on to finish the Tour of the Alps. Not only that, he ended up above Chris Froome in fifth place on the general classification.
He will now turn his attention to the Giro d’italia – the first grand tour of 2018. The 21-stage race begins with an individual time trial in Jerusalem on May 4.