Sprint specialist Sam Bennett finding Vuelta form at right time

They are two riders with two different strategies for this Vuelta a España. One, Mads Pedersen, is a former world champion who is solid across most terrain and can gather points in breakaways. The other is Sam Bennett, the Irish sprint specialist, who is faster than Pedersen over the final 200m but, by his own admission, is not as versatile over tougher terrain.

Bennett has taken two stages and worn the green jersey for much of this Vuelta. As the race moves into the next phase, he finds himself five points adrift of his rival and vying to get back in front.

What’s encouraging is he is feeling more and more like his old self, the rider who won two stages plus the green jersey in the 2020 Tour de France and who in 2020, and early 2021, until he suffered a serious knee injury, was the fastest sprinter in the world.

‘Peak power’

“It’s coming,” Bennett told The Irish Times on Monday, speaking on the Vuelta’s second rest day. “Even though I won the first two sprints, the power still isn’t back yet, the peak power. The power to sustain the sprint and to repeat efforts is more like my old self, I am a lot fresher before the sprint. But the actual sprint wasn’t really there.

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“But even with the first three days of the race, and then the first rest day, I felt my level move up there. And then halfway through the last week, I felt like I got a bit better again. I think this race is going to be the race that gets me back to my [true] level. I seem to be getting better as I go through it, but I am not there yet.”

Bennett was clearly best on stages two and three, winning his first grand tour stages since the 2020 Vuelta. But he said he has drawn more encouragement from his sensation in the sprints and power numbers he is posting, rather than the bare results.

“When you see improvement, that’s the biggest motivator. And you can kind of see the direction it is going in. When I feel like my old self, that’s really nice, because I know that that’s good enough,” he says.

“Winning the stages and feeling myself getting stronger as the race progresses, it’s what I felt like I could do all along. And it’s actually happening now, so that’s good. I think I’m feeling just more relief that I’m showing my employers that I am still here. Like, ‘you don’t have to worry, I’m coming back’. Because I’m sure at one stage they were like, ‘what’s happening here?’”

Determination is palpable

The race resumes on Tuesday with a time trial and then Wednesday’s stage 11 is the next chance for a bunch gallop. Bennett will chase another stage win there. There may be plenty of mountain days to come but he anticipates another one or two sprint chances in the upcoming block of racing, with more to follow between then and the finish in Madrid on Sunday week.

His determination is palpable; he hopes to grow in strength but admits he does not know if he will finish in the final green jersey or not.

“It is a weird one. You just don’t know what the future will bring. You can just take it day by day. When the points are so close now already, it is going to be a tough one. But it’s nice to see glimpses of the old Sam, even if [he laughs] I hate people who talk in the third person.”