Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale's Sam Bennett is eyeing his first Grand Tour stage win since the 2022 Vuelta as he heads into a third Giro d'Italia full of confidence, seven years after his last lap around Italy, even going so far as to say: "We can't leave the Giro without winning a stage."
The Irishman is one of the most successful Grand Tour riders in the current peloton, with wins at each of the Tour de France, Vuelta a España and Giro d'Italia, 10 in total. But as he's struggled with bouts of injury and missed some torque in the finals for the past few seasons, he's only raced one Grand Tour since his success in Spain three seasons ago, with a best stage result of fourth at last year's Tour.
However, with the Giro only two days away and four wins already banked in 2025, Bennett is hungry for an eleventh stage triumph, at the very race where he first found Grand Tour success in 2018.
"I'm feeling quite okay. I've changed my training quite a bit over the last month or two, so I'm a bit apprehensive, but I should be fine," said Bennett during a pre-Giro press conference.
"It's nothing major, but we saw that the last three, four years that I've been training to get speed, because we thought that I was missing that in my sprint, but we did more digging, and we saw that it was torque I was missing. So to get that, I've done a lot more shorter rides."
It's not what he's used to, or what he used to score those ten wins across grand Tours before 2022, however, again, it's all about trusting that the training will bring the results.
"At Pays de la Loire," where he won two stages, "I was doing some good numbers. So I have to trust the process, but there's just that fear of the unknown.
"I'm used to approaching Grand Tours a little bit differently, maybe a bit more old school, where I want to do more hours on the bike because I kind of think the fundamentals of cycling don't really change. But to be honest, I don't really miss the endurance so much at the minute, I think at my age it's something that's kind of pretty much built in."
For Bennett at 34, the hunger to win feels the same as it did for his first Giro eight years ago, in contrast to Caleb Ewan's surprising retirement announcement on Tuesday, with the Australian saying "when I crossed the line first, that feeling – the one you chase for years – faded quicker than it used to."
"Is this coming after Caleb's statement yesterday?" Bennett said with a smile when asked about his pursuit to still keep winning. "No, it's still the same. I still have that hunger. I still want it as bad.
"I mean, I still get that pain in my gut every time I lose a race, so I know the want to still win is there. I still want to win at the WorldTour. I want to win here, now I just have to try and go out and get a few stages."
Ewan was one of Bennett's closest rivals throughout his career, with the pair trading victories at the 2020 Tour de France when the Irishman won the green jersey. The latter was already one of many who posted a tribute to the Australian on social media last night, describing him as "a phenomenal rider",and "a pleasure to sprint against", but commented further on Wednesday morning.
"It was a bit of a shock, actually, he was a guy that I was quite close to in the peloton, off the bike as well, and it kind of shocked me that people around me are retiring," Bennet said.
"Because I still feel quite young and feel like I have a good couple of years left in me. But it feels weird, actually. We had some good battles, and during moments in our careers, we pushed each other to our limits and got the best out of ourselves because of it."
With the likes of Ewan retiring, Bennett has different opposition to work against in Albania and Italy in the battle for sprint wins and the maglia ciclamino, with Olav Kooij and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Milan Fretin (Cofidis) all taking the start.
But still, Grand Tour stage win number 11 remains "the first objective, that has to be the main priority", with a charge at adding a Giro points jersey triumph to his one from the Tour only coming after a re-evaluation of his position later in the race.
Despite his four wins so far this year, it's actually a defeat that is bringing Bennett the most confidence – second place on the final day of Tirreno-Adriatico back in March, where he showed a great turn of speed and lost narrowly only to Jonathan Milan, who isn't starting the Giro this year.
"I think that result [means] more than the results at Pays de la Loire, because I didn't really feel good that day, and I still had the legs and felt I really had speed that day," said Bennett.
"I was just missing a bit of torque, that bit of pulling power into the headwind with the gear I chose. But it gave me confidence that, you know, [Milan is] top dog at the minute, and I was testing him right up to the line."
What would winning a Grand Tour stage after a three-year drought mean for Bennett?
"I mean, it's been a while, and so it would be something that would be quite nice, and would also back up the changes we've made the last couple of weeks and months to show that we are going in the right direction," said Bennett. "But also to just kind of show that I'm still here."
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