Sam Bennett - no same day spoilers

swarlb wrote: »

I would have thought that was his job ?

In another season, Sam might have had the luxury of ridding in Italy , France , Spain (Manly stage races ) et (or in his previous ,Turkey - doubt he will ever ride there again ,as he’s no longer playing second fiddle to other sprinters) rather than the Belgian races (Most of the classics /semi classics) which are normally held in March -April

But with all the races so close together this year ,and due to their obligations to compete in World Tour races , The teams don’t have a luxury of spacing out riders campaign.

While a race like Liege Bastogne Liege would normally get GC climbers taking part , many of them, in a normal season would avoid that race and do Paris -Nice and or the Italian Stage race that is in a few days later and then move onto something like Tour of Romandie or some Spanish Stage race .

Not sure Roglic or the podacar would normally ride Liege (Roglic was preparing for the Giro last year) and if their teams could ,they would probably give them a week off and prepare for the Vuelta

Typically lads who do the TDF - Vuelta wouldn’t race much in between (Barely a month between them) both bar the usual money making Post TDF “races” and maybe a spin in the San Sebastián Classic .

In a normal season, Before the Tour, March -April , teams would have their dedicated classic roster do the Belgian - Dutch - Italian-France one day races (monuments, classics, and semi classics) while the GC guys would do the stage races like Paris Nice, Tour of Romandie etc . The odd GC lad might do the Ardennes races like Amstel n Liege

However , but they can’t Do that this year ,as their team need lads for the Giro Those who aren’t going to the Giro , have to do a shift in Belgium ,which they normally wouldn’t do . Tom Doulumon looks like he could do with a week off too , but he will have to ride some of the Belgian races ,and while I might be wrong, it’s rare to see him ride at any of the Belgian Classics

As for Sam, while the climbing wouldn’t be the same in Liege as the world champ race (liege is still bloody HARD) couldn’t see him doing Flanders either ,especially if he’s down for the Vuelta

Don’t be too surprised to see many teams ,who are down men due to injury , putting out the same lads from the TDF for the Vuelta even if they aren’t in top form,simply to meet the numbers . (Think the Vuelta teams are 6 and not 8) bar maybe some teams throwing in neo pros and the odd lad who did well in the one day races .

Last season Thomas De Gent of Lotto rode in all three Grand Tours with some decent top 10s in all three and a deserved win in TDF . While he regularly races a lot , that was usual . Lotto hardly had much of a GC team

Bauke Mollema frequently doesn’t two tours in a season TDF - Vuelta . Last season he was extremely busy with Giro -TDF and a **** load of one day races after the world championship (which was fruitful for him);