Bennett to enjoy long break

George Bennett has already identified how he can improve for his next grand tour onslaught.

The LottoNL-Jumbo rider was not overly satisfied with his eighth-place finish at the Giro d’Italia despite the result being New Zealand’s, best at a grand tour event.

That’s because Bennett is an ambitious rider and once he reached sixth place on general classification, the 28-year-old quickly raised the bar and set his sights on a top-five finish.

That did not eventuate, ending up 13min 17sec and seven places back from winner Chris Froome.

After putting his body through 3572.4km of gruelling racing within the space of just three weeks, Bennett will now enjoy a long break before beginning his build up for the Vuelta a Espana, which begins on August 25.

He will skip the Tour de France as LottoNL-Jumbo continue to take a patient approach to his development and their long-term plan is to give him GC roles at the Giro and Vuelta before letting him have a full crack at the Tour in 2019.

Bennett said plans to peak much closer to the Vuelta as one of the major reasons why he fell short of his lofty targets the Giro.

‘‘I think you need to be in far worse form earlier on and then come up right before it, and timing that is really important,’’ Bennett said.

‘‘In the big mountains I was always there and I was always fine but it was the little uphill sprints and the explosive sections that caught me off guard and I was losing time in those on days when you wouldn’t expect it to be the difference.

‘‘I’ve got such a good time period now to get fresh, to rest and to prepare mentally to build up again and work on those things.’’

Bennett may not compete again for another two months, with the Tour of Poland expected to be his only significant World Tour race in the lead up to the Vuelta.

‘‘I’ve had 50 race days or something crazy like that already so the break is very much needed.’’