Last year, when he lined up to start the season in Australia, George Bennett was all too aware that uncertainty and challenges lay ahead, and while the path on the road certainly didn't end up being easy, it was nothing compared to the one he faced off it.
2025 may have been a contract year, and in such an intensely competitive market, riders are often driven to be hyper-focused on proving their worth to secure a continuation of their career. But there were far more pressing concerns that left him bolting from Liège-Bastogne-Liège to return home to New Zealand, where he faced a deep personal loss, his mother's death from brain cancer.
Then, even when he returned to racing mid-year, there was no easy run, with crashes in the Vuelta a España. After that, when he was ready to race again, Israel-Premier Tech's absence from the late-season block of Italian races meant his season was cut even shorter, to 47 race days - by far the fewest of his 15-year professional racing career. However, there is no sense that the 35-year-old is worn down by the experience; if anything, it seems to have spurred the NSN Cycling rider on.
"It was a tough year last year, on and off the bike. And even though you probably never really get completely through something like that, definitely last year at this race I had a lot of really bad circumstances. So it's really nice to be back here now and be able to actually just focus on racing and the whole year ahead," Bennett said as he opened up 2026 in South Australia.
"There was a lot of uncertainty last year about if I'd even go to Europe, and then now I've got a really nice program and nice opportunities, so I just feel a bit more optimistic about the year in general," he told Cyclingnews last month.
It turned out that even in the opening weeks, there was plenty of reason for that optimism, as while the team didn't have the best of fortune in Australia between crashes and mechanicals, there was also a stage win for Ethan Vernon and multiple podium placings for the squad. What's more, the start of the hop, skip and jump back to Europe delivered something spectacular.
Bennett, who is often racing at the service of others, was facing a course for the New Zealand Road Championships that didn't exactly play to his strengths. Even if the circuit may have finished with a climb, it was a short, punchy one, far more suited to his teammate Corbin Strong than Bennett. However, just sometimes the early break prevails - and this was one of those times.
Bennett kicked early on the final climb and claimed the race, his first victory since he also took the jersey emblazoned with the silver fern back to Europe in 2021.
The scariest thing in the world
It was the perfect way to launch into a new European season, and what's more, it bodes well for the path ahead, particularly given the conscious decision to ease into 2026, focusing on getting the foundation in place for later goals.
"The big block for me starts when I go to Europe, doing altitude camp, and then we're really going to focus on the spring, so it's been intentionally dialled back," said Bennett of the preparation for the season-opening races as he sat in the team van in Tanunda, ahead of stage 1 on a notably hot edition of the WorldTour opener in Australia.
"It's a new approach and of course, you're so motivated when you start back on the bike that you want to train really hard but it's been quite deliberate to to actually just rein it in a bit," said Bennett, who expects to be starting with either the early March races of Trofeo Laigueglia or Strade Bianche and going right through to the Tour de Romandie which finishes in early May.
"It's a long block, so you can't be tired before you get there."
The Volta a Catalunya at the end of March is one of the races Bennett has earmarked as key and then of course the Tour de France, if selections fall his way, but no matter how the cookie crumbles, it is clear that Bennett is launching into his 15th year as a professional cyclist relishing where he is and what he is doing.
"I'm more motivated than I've been in the past. I think I have a good appreciation for how much of a privilege it is to be a bike racer," said Bennett.
"I think just being in a nice team, nice environment, good guys, you want to be around them, you want to perform for your teammates and for the staff. I think that helps a lot.
"Maybe I've got past a lot of the stresses of what it used to be, and I find it a really enjoyable thing to do."
The years in the peloton may be accumulating, but there is certainly no sense that Bennett is marking time.
"I know the years are limited. Maybe I've only got three more years or something, so you start thinking - OK, I need to enjoy these.
"I guess, I don't think about it too much, and just enjoy that I'm here and focus on the processes … it fits my personality, of ticking the boxes, and the thought of going to work in an office is the scariest thing in the world."
