Bennett breaks into Vuelta top 10
George Bennett believes he is just one ‘‘good day’’ away from launching himself into podium contention at the super-tight Vuelta a Espana.
The Lottonl-jumbo rider is sitting poised in 10th place overall, 48 seconds behind new leader Simon Yates after the opening nine stages.
It is the first time Bennett has been within one minute of the leader’s jersey through nine stages at a grand tour.
‘‘We’re only 48 seconds off the jersey, which is very small for a grand tour. Overall it’s been a really good first week,’’ Bennett said ahead of the first rest day.
‘‘There’s only a handful of seconds between guys everywhere so one bad day and you’re out of the top 10 and one really good day and you’re standing on the podium.
‘‘It’s going to be a pretty nervous few weeks, I think. We’ve got a rest day and then a pretty easy day after that but then the race really starts for real.’’
Bennett was the 10th rider across the finish line on stage nine’s 200.8km trek from Talavera de la Reina to La Covatilla – the first major test for the general classification contenders.
Although he was unable to stick with the small group of favourites, which included Miguel Angel Lopez, Nairo Quintana, Wilco Kelderman, Rigoberto Uran, Ion Izagirre and Yates, Bennett still managed to take some time out of other contenders such as Michal Kwiatkowski, Alejandro Valverde and Thibaut Pinot.
‘‘Today was frustrating because I did the hard bit, I made the group of favourites and I was there with 1km go to with the best guys. But I got a bit tailed off in the crosswinds and had a few bad moments and a bit of side stitch.
‘‘If I had just been able to hold on another 50m as we went down the hill to the line then I would’ve had a free ride to the line. That was probably 20 seconds that I didn’t need to lose but on the other hand I put a bit of time into some guys and we already saw a few cracks in some guys, which is good.’’
Due to the high-profile absences of Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Tom Dumoulin, Bennett predicted the Vuelta would be wide open. And even now, after nine days of racing, he said he was none the wiser when it came to who could emerge as a winner.