Sam Bennett (cyclist)

Sam Bennett

Bennett in 2019.
Personal information
Full name	Sam Bennett
Nickname	'Sammy B'
Born	(1990-10-16) 16 October 1990 (age 34) Wervik, Flanders, Belgium
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[1]
Weight	73 kg (161 lb; 11 st 7 lb)[1]
Team information
Current team	Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Amateur teams
2007–2010	Vélo-Club La Pomme Marseille
2009	Carrick Wheelers Dan Morrissey
2010	Française des Jeux (stagiaire)
Professional teams
2011–2013	An Post–Sean Kelly
2014–2019	NetApp–Endura
2020–2021	Deceuninck–Quick-Step[2][3]
2022–2023	Bora–Hansgrohe
2024–	Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France Points classification (2020) 2 individual stages (2020) Giro d'Italia 3 individual stages (2018) Vuelta a España 5 individual stages (2019, 2020, 2022) Stage races Four Days of Dunkirk (2024) One-day races and Classics National Road Race Championships (2019) Classic Brugge–De Panne (2021) Eschborn–Frankfurt (2022) Münsterland Giro (2017) Clásica de Almería (2014)

Sam Bennett (born 16 October 1990) is an Irish professional cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale. He is a road sprinter who turned professional in 2011. He has won ten Grand Tour stages: three stages in the 2018 Giro d'Italia, two stages at the 2019 Vuelta a España, two stages at the 2020 Tour de France, where he also won the Points classification, one stage at the 2020 Vuelta a España, and two stages at the 2022 Vuelta a España.

Bennett was born in 1990 in Wervik, Flanders, Belgium, where his father Michael came in 1989 to play professional football for local club Eendracht Wervik. He moved with his parents to their native Ireland at the age of four, where he spent most of his early years growing up in Carrick-on-Suir, the hometown of fellow cyclist Sean Kelly.^[4][5]

Bennett was head-hunted by Vélo-Club La Pomme Marseille at 17, and joined them in the south of France, after completing his first year of third-level education at Waterford Institute of Technology (where he was embarking on an Honours Degree in Health and Exercise Studies). In 2009, Bennett rode, for the first time, the Rás Tailteann with the Carrick Wheelers Dan Morrissey squad. During the 2010 season, Bennett won the under-23 road race at the Irish National Cycling Championships in Sligo, aged 19.

In 2011, Bennett left France and joined Sean Kelly's An Post–Sean Kelly squad, under the tutelage of manager Kurt Bogaerts. He again won the under-23 road race at the Irish National Cycling Championships and also the Grote Prijs Stad Geel, a UCI 1.2 ranked one day race.

The following year he finished tenth in the under-23 road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Limburg, and seventh in the under-23 road race at the UEC European Road Championships.

In 2013 An Post–Chain Reaction moved up to Professional Continental level; Bennett won two stages in the Rás Tailteann – stage 3 into Listowel and stage 8 in Skerries – and stage 5 of the Tour of Britain, in which he also took two second places.

Having joined NetApp–Endura in 2014, Bennett took his first professional win at the UCI 1.1 ranked Clásica de Almería and won twice in Germany: the Rund um Köln and stage 5 of the 1.HC ranked Bayern–Rundfahrt into Nuremberg.

The 2015 season began for Bennett at the Tour of Qatar, where he won the final stage, finishing in the Doha Corniche. Bennett won the first and third stages at the Bayern–Rundfahrt, allowing him to wear his first professional points classification jersey. Bennett was involved in a mass crash at the end of the Scheldeprijs.^[6] Bennett began the Tour de France sick, having been diagnosed with a hernia on his diaphragm. He completed 16 stages of the race before abandoning. He returned to racing at the Arctic Race of Norway and won stage 2 into Setermoen; he finished 2nd in the points classification to Alexander Kristoff. Bennett took his final win of the season at Paris–Bourges in a sprint finish.

In March 2016, Bennett won the first stage of the Critérium International in Corsica. Bennett's Tour de France effort was hindered by a crash that resulted in broken fingers on his right hand, but he continued to finish the race last in the general classification – the lanterne rouge – and finishing in the top 10 on the final stage in Paris. After recovering from his Tour injuries, Bennett went on to take a stage win at the Giro di Toscana, and won the points classification. The following month, he won his second consecutive Paris–Bourges.

On 7 March 2017, Bennett won Stage 3 of the Paris–Nice.^[7] Bennett went on to win 2 stages of the Tour of Slovenia in June, and won the points classification. At the Czech Cycling Tour, he again won two stages and the points classification jersey. In September, he won the Münsterland Giro in a photo-finish. In October, Bennett won four out of the six stages of the 2017 Tour of Turkey.^[8]

Bennett started the season in the Tour Down Under, despite having an illness.^[9] He also started in the Paris–Nice, but had to abandon midway through stage 3 due to sickness.^[10] At the Volta a Catalunya, Bennett finished second on stage two. On 11 May 2018, he achieved his maiden Grand Tour stage victory, winning the seventh stage of the Giro d'Italia in Praia a Mare, in a sprint finish. He then added further stage victories on stage 12, finishing at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari motor racing circuit in Imola,^[11] and the final stage into Rome.^[12]

In August 2019, he was named in the startlist for the Vuelta a España, his first time competing in the Vuelta a España.^[13] On 26 August, he won Stage 3.^[14] He also won Stage 14, and finished in second place on four other stages; he finished third in the points classification behind overall contenders Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar.

In December 2019, Bennett signed a two-year contract with Belgian team Deceuninck–Quick-Step.^[15]

He was named in the team to compete in the Tour de France and narrowly finished in second place in a sprint finish on stage 3.^[16] On stage 5, Bennett finished in third place and took the green jersey, becoming the first Irish rider to lead one of the classifications in the Tour since Sean Kelly won the same jersey in 1989. On stage 10, Bennett won his first stage in a sprint finish and also regained the green jersey from Peter Sagan, its seven-time winner.^[17][18] Bennett became the sixth Irish cyclist to win a stage at the Tour de France, after Shay Elliott, Kelly, Stephen Roche, Martin Earley and Dan Martin, and the second, after Elliott, to win a stage in every Grand Tour.^[19][20] On 20 September, Bennett won his second stage of the Tour, becoming only the fifth cyclist to win the final stage of the Tour de France while wearing the green jersey, and the second Irish (and the second from the small town of Carrick-on-Suir^[21]) cyclist to win the Green Jersey (after Kelly, who won it 4 times, in 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1989).^[22][23][24]

He won Stage 4 of the Vuelta a España.^[25][26] On stage 9, he crossed the line first but was relegated for a 'shove' in the final kilometre, with the stage win being awarded to Germany's Pascal Ackermann.^[27] In the final stage, he again lost out to Ackermann when he was narrowly beaten into 2nd place in the sprint, thus failing by the width of a wheel-rim to achieve a win on the last-day stage of each Grand Tour, after final-day stage wins in the 2018 Giro d'Italia and the 2020 Tour de France.^[28][29]

Bennett missed the 2021 Tour de France due to a knee injury.^[30][31]

In August 2021, Bennett was announced to be rejoining Bora–Hansgrohe on a two-year contract, along with his teammate Shane Archbold.^[32]

Bennett was not part of the Bora–Hansgrohe team that took part in the Tour de France.^[33]

In August Bennett won the second and third stages of the 2022 Vuelta a España in two sprint finishes. He became the second Irish rider to win at least 10 stages in Grand Tours after Sean Kelly.^[34]

In November 2023, Bennett signed with the Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale team for 2024.^[35]

In May he won the Four Days of Dunkirk after winning four of the six stages of the race, it was the first general classification win of his professional career.^[36]

Grand Tour	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Giro d'Italia	—	—	158	112	—	—	—	—	—	—
Tour de France	DNF	174	—	—	—	138	—	—	—	DNF
Vuelta a España	—	—	—	—	134	137	—	DNF	—	—

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sam Bennett.

• Sam Bennett at UCI
• Sam Bennett at Cycling Archives (archive)
• Sam Bennett at ProCyclingStats
• Sam Bennett at CQ Ranking
• Sam Bennett at CycleBase
• Irish Cycling Q&A
• VC la Pomme