Lessons learned in Rio prepare Bennett for any bump in road
George Bennett likes his chances ahead of the men’s road cycling race in Tokyo today and knows he has the necessary support to nab a strong result.
Bennett is one half of the men’s team, alongside Patrick Bevin, in this afternoon’s race.
Bennett made his Olympic Games debut in Rio in 2016, and at the time, he described the road race as the toughest of his career as he crossed the line 33rd, after having to evade crashing riders, a course riddled with tricky inclines, unforgiving cobblestones and scorching heat.
His teammate at the time, Zac Williams — whose role was to act as a supporter and whose speciality lay on track rather than tarmac — failed to finish the race, along with 78 others.
That experience offers Bennett a blueprint of what to expect today. He likens the forecast conditions — a high of 32C and 60 per cent humidity — to what he went through five years ago.
He says the humidity, in particular, is “what kills you”, and did a lot of work around heat adaptation at his home in Andorra.
“You get home from a ride, straight away you’re in the sauna and you’re just trying to get your core temperature as high as possible,” Bennett says.
“The lessons we learnt from last time — Rio was super-hot, humid. Didn’t have any teammates but didn’t have any support on the road either, wasn’t getting any water.
“I’ve sat down with the Bike NZ staff and we’ve worked out a plan for cooling and hydration.”
This time, Bennett has the more proven Bevin by his side.
Bevin is no stranger to cycling’s top races around the world. Among six appearances on the three Grand Tours, Bevin is a two-time winner of the New Zealand national time trial and is a top all-around rider. Bennett says Bevin’s inclusion makes a huge difference.
“Absolute luxury having Paddy there — doesn’t get much better than him when you’re looking at people in his role — big strong guys that are there to help position you and can ride all day.
“He’s got the time trial three days after, so he’s not really going to be in a position to completely bury himself, but I still think [it’s] day and night compared to last time.”
Unlike Bennett, Bevin’s focus comes in the shorter and more speedcentric time trial. He admits he may not even finish the road race due to his other obligations.
“It might sound a little bit negative,” Bevin says. “I’ll go probably halfway in and call it a day and focus on the time trial. It’s this weird situation that’s the truth — my event is three days later.”
Neither has raced competitively
since the Giro d’Italia in May. They skipped this year’s Tour de France — a decision they were both pleased with given the number of crashes and the
at-times treacherous weather through the three-week race.
“It’s meant building my training around that here and not racing obviously, not doing the Tour de France and building up for the TT [time trial],” Bevin says.
“It’s always hard to really know where you’re at until you step out on to the course come race day. It’s been a very satisfying, very steady and very strong build-up.”
The 234km race begins at Musashinonomori Park and features a lap around Mount Fuji.
The time trial course, on the other hand, is 44.2km — two laps around a course situated close to the Fuji International Speedway.
Bennett describes the course as “honest”.
“It’s clear I’m strong enough to be there with the best 10 guys coming over Mt Fuji, and then there’s 40km and they might be a lot stronger than me — the best guys left in the race might be stronger — but when it’s a bit flat and there’s no control and there’s an element of unpredictability, anything can happen.”