Bennett startled by his form so early in season
One year older, one year stronger.
New Zealand cycling star George Bennett says he is encouraged by his early season form, despite slipping two places on the final stage to finish 11th at the Tour Down Under in Adelaide on Sunday.
‘‘It’s bloody good. Given the build-up, I was real happy with how I went,’’ he said.
Bennett initially thought he was heading to South Australia to carry drink bottles for his teammates and to lend a hand to LottoNL-Jumbo’s designated leader Robert Gesink, as he had not long had surgery in the hope of curing his lingering side stitch troubles.
‘‘A month ago I was still sitting on the couch.’’
Instead, the 27-year-old found himself heading into the penultimate stage, the climb up Willunga Hill, just 14 seconds back from the orche jersey holder.
However, he made the mistake of following BMC Racing Team’s Richie Porte, who broke with 1.5km to go to leave everyone bar Tour Down Under winner Daryl Impey (Michelton-Scott) trailing in his wake.
Bennett immediately regretted the decision as he ‘‘parked up on the side of the road’’ and crawled to the finish line. He said he should have waited to make a move closer to the end, like Impey did to snatch the overall lead.
‘‘I think that was my downfall – trying to go after him [Porte]. I had too much confidence from the day before probably and didn’t realise my limits. It was completely over what I could do at this time of the year and I just exploded. It was a big mistake but it’s a big learning curve.
‘‘The best tactic there in hindsight is to accept that you’re never going to follow Richie up that hill and sit tight with your nose out of the wind and in the last few hundred metres give it everything.’’
Bennett lost 10 seconds on that stage, ending his hopes of winning a second World Tour race. But he won’t be losing any sleep over it, still stoked with his 11th place finish.
‘‘I did better than anyone expected,’’ he said.
‘‘Eleventh is not a bad way to start the year on the World Tour without really knuckling down and doing the work.
‘‘A lot of it was experience. You’ve done the race before and you know how to get yourself reasonably good with 10 days of training. I hope that by getting older it means your base level is better and you can reach higher peaks as well.
‘‘If it had been a really hard race - it wasn’t a particularly hard race in terms of numbers – then your lack of form really gets exposed. On a short, explosive course such as Down Under, you can do it if you naturally have a high VO2 max and survive on natural ability.’’
With Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana his main targets for 2018, Bennett acknowledged he still has plenty of work to do. However, remains buoyed by his current form.
‘‘I’d call it a great success in terms of just feeling healthy again.
‘‘I’ve had slightly better [results] before but I’ve also really targeted it before.
‘‘This has been one of my more enjoyable starts, just enjoying the racing and not taking any stress with it.
‘‘People were disappointed when I fell out of the top-10, like the race director and that. But it’s not something I’m going to waste my energy on now as I’ve got what will be a very stressful spring campaign leading into the Giro, and I can’t afford to be worrying about little things like that.’’
Bennett will remain in Australia as he turns his attention to the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Geelong on Sunday.
‘‘Eleventh is not a bad way to start the year on the World Tour without really knuckling down and doing the work.’’
George Bennett