Sam Bennett: The self-deprecating sprinter who became one of Ireland's cycling greats
Ireland's Sam Bennett celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win stage 10 of the Tour de France from Ile d'Oleron to Ile de Re. (Kenzo Tribouillard/Pool via AP)
The first words out of Sam Bennett’s mouth after an emotionally-charged stage win at the Tour de France tell you much about the 29-year-old from Carrick-on-Suir.
They tell you something about his character, where he comes from, and what he represents, how even with the world’s media craning in and the tears streaming down his face, he has the presence of mind to deflect the attention elsewhere. And stay humble.
His parents, Helen and Michael, wouldn’t tolerate it any other way.
Bennett has a lot of likable traits, but perhaps what has endeared him most to fans around the world is indeed his humility, and it was hard not to feel that the cycling world almost willed him across the finish line first today.
For he’s been close to the Holy Grail all week, as a second, third, and fourth will prove.
All in the face of a growing and constant interrogation from the press about his endless, interminable wait for a win.
And how Bennett has handled that pressure has been exemplary... though some of his retorts in recent days might have been categorised as ‘terse’, to put it mildly.
"Lá stairúil dúinn anseo"
— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) September 8, 2020
Is é @Sammmy_Be buaiteoir an staid an lae inniu!! 💪😍
Go on Sammmmy!!!!@LeTour #TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/UTPu9FTfZK
Still, he carried out his media duties smiling (through gritted teeth on occasion) and hasn’t shirked the responsibilities (on or off the bike) that being on one of the world’s biggest teams as a protected rider brings.
There has been such scrutiny on his quest for a maiden Tour de France stage win that even the yellow jersey of Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) was asked if he reckons Bennett could finally end the long wait for a Tour stage win?
What the journalist in question didn’t in fact know was the Bennett he was referring to was in fact George Bennett, from New Zealand, who had no hope of winning a flat stage. And he rode for a different team.
Still, it only added to the murmur around the Tour that Sam Bennett’s wait for a win would go on, and on.
And when Sam had the ignominy of missing a key split on stage seven, and losing a whopping 14 minutes as well as the green jersey he got the day before, there were a few more questions about his maturity as a rider.
Eurosport commentator Sean Kelly was apoplectic on TV and couldn’t believe that his young understudy could possibly have been so off the pace and poorly positioned. We all wondered the very same.
Sam’s whole career has been pock-marked by real, public displays where he seemed to question whether he had the bottle to thrive in this sport.
His self-deprecating humour is what many find so likeable in him, but in a sport and a discipline as cut-throat and ruthless as cycling and high-speed sprinting, the two aren’t often so mutually symbiotic.
And Sam has been down more times than he cares to remember. Literally and figuratively. There was the illness that ended his maiden Tour de France prematurely in 2015 and the horror, high-speed crash a year later on the opening stage that meant he could finish no higher than last place by the time he trundled into Paris.
But there was always the quality, and always the good people around him to keep him together.
You've won Sam....YOU'VE WON!!!! 🏆🏆🏆@Sammmy_Be is é tusa buaiteoir an staid inniu!!
— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) September 8, 2020
CHAMP!!! Táimid fíor-bhródúil asat 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪@LeTour #TDF2020 @JOEdotie pic.twitter.com/RGqprOJlUP
The boys in Carrick will tell you that even though he came training last winter with three Vuelta and Giro stage wins in his pocket, they’ll allow for no egos in the group spin and if there’s a sprint to be had, Sam must put up or shut up.
“Carrick has a big cycling culture and I would compare it to the Isle of Man in the UK,” he told a packed press gathering today.
“And why does it produce so many world-class riders? It’s because there’s a support to really bring them through. Carrick is a small town but you could go out at the weekend and there would be 80 riders... I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Sean (Kelly) and I have come from there,” he added when asked why Carrick-on-Suir had produced two of Ireland’s greatest ever riders.
“It’s just such a good environment to bring guys through.”
In winning today’s 10th stage of the Tour de France, Bennett has become just the sixth Irishman in history to win a stage of the great race, joining luminaries like Shay Elliott, the aforementioned Kelly, Stephen Roche, Martin Early, and Dan Martin.
And more impressively, he is just the second Irish rider of all time to win stages in each of the Vuelta a Espana, the Giro d’Italia, and the Tour de France, after Elliott.
That is despite Kelly being world number one for four years in a row, and Roche winning the Triple Crown of the World Championships, the Tour de France, and the Giro d’Italia in 1987.
He may never win a Grand Tour himself, Bennett, but by winning a stage of the hardest bike race - or perhaps sporting contest - in the world, he is part of an elite club.
“Why the tears?” was the question he faced in the immediate aftermath of his win.
He paused for a moment, wiped his eyes and offered: “You dream of this growing up and you never think it will happen, but it does and it did. I don’t know what to say.
“It took a while for it to hit me that I’d actually won.
“I thought maybe (I didn’t get it)... I was waiting to go, I thought maybe I waited too late. I went and I thought maybe I was in too big a gear.
His team, the mighty Deceuninck-Quick Step from Belgium, have been one of the big players in this year’s race and as well as taking a stage win through French favourite Julian Alaphilippe, they have also held the yellow and green jerseys respectively.
That has only heaped the expectation on Bennett, who can thank his team for how they crafted yesterday’s win for him; shielding him from the crosswinds early on that battered the riders as well as keeping him well-positioned towards the front throughout the three-and-a-half-hour race.
It was in the final kilometres where their help really mattered as many of the sport’s other luminaries massed at the front and dived into the tiniest gaps in an effort to launch themselves from the best possible position.
And while Bennett owes each a drink for their efforts, there was definitely an extra pour for Danish powerhouse Michael Morkov who did a remarkable job in the final kilometre.
“I really wanted to deliver for them and for my teammates who worked superbly all day,” said a more measured Bennett in the press room after.
“I can’t thank these guys enough...and the mechanics and the and the , everybody...the whole team.
“I want to thank them all for their support and I’m just so happy and relieved that I could deliver this result.
“Everybody had a role today and everybody did amazing but what Michael did in the final was perfect.
“He was so calm and super smooth and as I said, it was because it went too perfectly in the end that I almost couldn’t believe it was happening.
“We were there together in the end and I saw 250m to go, I saw 200, and I thought ‘oh man we are in prime position’.
“Everything was going perfectly, nobody was fighting me for the wheel (of Michael) so I let a little gap go and I took a run at his back wheel because I knew it was a headwind finish and I left it as late as possible. It was a fantastic job.”
Asked if he would prefer a stage win or to finish the race as leader of the points classification, Bennett remarked, “Paris in green or a stage win, tough one. I never really thought about the green until I was wearing it. It’s something special to wear. I think for this year, I would give up green on the Champs Elysees for this (stage win). I don’t know actually. I’ll take whatever comes my way.”
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