Bennett detours from Le Tour
George Bennett has a grand plan, and it does not involve the Tour de France – not next year anyway.
The New Zealand cycling star, who broke into the top 10 at this year’s Tour, only to be forced out of the race due to illness, has revealed that he will not be on the startline in Noirmoutier come July 7, 2018.
Instead, Bennett is targeting the two other grand tours – Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana – with the aim of giving the general classification a real crack at the Tour again in 2019.
‘‘I won’t be at the Tour next year,’’ Bennett said. ‘‘After a lot of discussion, thinking and planning, and analysing courses, we are going to do the Giro and the Vuelta and then carry on to the worlds. They are the three main objectives this season.’’
Bennett will not return to the Tour of California to defend his title. He has also ruled himself unavailable for Commonwealth Games selection.
Steven Kruijswijk will lead LottoNL-Jumbo at the Tour, with Bennett given leadership roles at the Giro and Vuelta.
‘‘I believe in the reasoning behind it. I could go next year to do the Tour, and I do believe I could be in the top 10, but I think I’m better to go away and do two grand tours really well with a full buildup and grow as a rider and then come back to the Tour the year after with a full team behind me.
‘‘At the moment, the way the Tour is set out next year, there’s 10 days of really dangerous racing, dangerous from the prospective of losing time with crosswinds and cobblestones and things like that. You really need a team around you that’s fully focussed on GC riders as opposed to going with a sprinter.’’
Although the Tour is recognised as the world’s premier bike race, Bennett is urging the New Zealand public to get behind the Giro as he searches for his second top-10 finish at a grand tour. He was the first Kiwi to do so, when he first 10th at the Vuelta in 2016.
‘‘I’m going to be racing the same guys; [Chris] Froome, [Tom] Dumoulin, [Fabio] Aru. In the general classification field it’s basically the same as the Tour and all that it is missing is that it is in Italy and not in France.
‘‘It is hard to think that I’m missing the Tour – that’s why I ride a bike – but in a way it’s all for the Tour in 2019.’’
Bennett is off contract at the end of 2018. Should other trade teams approach him, he said he would be silly not to listen. However, Bennett is ‘‘pretty happy’’ at LottoNL-Jumbo and said he was not actively looking for a move away from the Dutch outfit.
‘‘I won’t be looking for a long contract. I feel like I’m making good steps each year. For guys that have been kicking off good results and feel like they’re not going to get much better, a three-year contract is the dream because they’re going to get paid at that price.
‘‘For me, I’m looking at it from the sporting aspect which means equipment, support team around you, race calendar, roles in the team. Of course at some stage you have to look after yourself financially because it’s a pretty short lifespan of a career but I’ll never be too worried about money and instead looking for where my best chance is and making decisions around that.
‘‘Lotto are keen on a future together and I’m pretty happy in the setup. For sure I’d be an idiot not to talk to other teams and get everything on the table and assess my options but by no means am I desperately looking for a change.’’
Bennett said his approach will be to worry about the results, and his future will take care of itself.
His first race of the year will be at the elite road national championships in Napier, although he has opted against competing in the time trial, deciding instead just to focus on the road race.
He will then head to Australia for the Tour Down Under.