Sam Bennett - no same day spoilers

1bryan

Btw, does anyone know who Sam's agent is? Is it one of the McQuaids?

CrowdedHouse

1bryan wrote: »

Btw, does anyone know who Sam's agent is? Is it one of the McQuaids?

Yes, Andrew - Trinity Sports Management

Raoul Duke

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Also need to fill in the backstop about him supposedly leaving at the end of the season plus Paddy's outbursts about Sam's mental fortitude.

Also, that he's probably recovered from the injury but doesn't have the fitness for the Tour (according to Sam). And that's there's maybe a kernel of truth to what his team boss has been saying. If he was at 90% fitness, there's stages to win at this Tour.

1bryan

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

Yes, Andrew - Trinity Sports Management

He's in safe hands then, and I'm sure Andrew is the one advising Sam not to react to Lefevere's baiting.

I always got the impression that Trinity were inclined to deal specifically with a handful of teams, and a lot of their riders would jump between those teams. Thats anecdotal. I'd actually love to see the breakdown of Trinity riders, and the teams they've ridden for.

My money is on Sam being with Ineos next year.

Macy0161

1bryan wrote: »

I always got the impression that Trinity were inclined to deal specifically with a handful of teams, and a lot of their riders would jump between those teams. Thats anecdotal.

I think that's the case with a lot of the agencies to be fair.

After the sh*tshow DQS has turned out for Sam, I'm actually ambivalent about him going to skineos now.

odyssey06

Raoul Duke wrote: »

Also, that he's probably recovered from the injury but doesn't have the fitness for the Tour (according to Sam). And that's there's maybe a kernel of truth to what his team boss has been saying. If he was at 90% fitness, there's stages to win at this Tour.

No need to be throwing digs out to Sam out in public though...
You have Cav, is is worth taking the risk on a Sam short on race fitness, at 90% fitness etc versus bringing Cav.
Just bring Cav and say you're doing it because Sam is lacking race time.

Dr. Bre

1bryan wrote: »

He's in safe hands then, and I'm sure Andrew is the one advising Sam not to react to Lefevere's baiting.

I always got the impression that Trinity were inclined to deal specifically with a handful of teams, and a lot of their riders would jump between those teams. Thats anecdotal. I'd actually love to see the breakdown of Trinity riders, and the teams they've ridden for.

My money is on Sam being with Ineos next year.

Why Ineos? They won’t really help Sam in the sprints if they are a dedicated GC team !

breezy1985

Dr. Bre wrote: »

Why Ineos? They won’t really help Sam in the sprints if they are a dedicated GC team !

Trinity work pretty closely with Ineos. Hopefully though he doesnt end up there

swarlb

There's almost a script at work here. Bennett went to the Tour last possibly hoping to win a stage at the very least, possibly two. But he ends up in a Green jersey fight with Sagan, and with the help of his team, managed to pull himself over the mountains, take it down to the line, and win green in Paris.
Morkov and Co. are his best buddies and all is well.
Fast forward a year, and while he did have wins at the start, he lost out at Gent Wevelegem, which was unfortunate as he looked very strong, and would no doubt have won if it had come down to a sprint.
Then you have 'the combacks'... Evenepoel, Jakobsen and of course 'Cav'
Ye couldn't make this up, and while the first two are still on the road to recovery, there is no doubt that 'Cav' is on top form.
So... which looks better for QuickStep... a defence of the Green jersey with an injured Bennett or a stab at massive publicity with a reborn 'Cav' and his quest to equal at the least Merckx's tally of 34 stage wins... and possibly take Green as well.
And judging by the results so far, he is on course.
Morkov and Co. are now HIS best buddies, and Bennett....well, I think they've forgotten about him.
If Bennett had won at Gent and Scheldeprijs it might be a different story...

He's not even going to the Olympics, which I would have thought would have been a personal goal for any athlete.

Macy0161

swarlb wrote: »

Morkov and Co. are now HIS best buddies, and Bennett....well, I think they've forgotten about him.

Morkov has mentioned Sam in several interviews I've heard, including on ITV4. He just does his job for whomever he is leading out.

Eamonnator

swarlb wrote: »

There's almost a script at work here. Bennett went to the Tour last possibly hoping to win a stage at the very least, possibly two. But he ends up in a Green jersey fight with Sagan, and with the help of his team, managed to pull himself over the mountains, take it down to the line, and win green in Paris.
Morkov and Co. are his best buddies and all is well.
Fast forward a year, and while he did have wins at the start, he lost out at Gent Wevelegem, which was unfortunate as he looked very strong, and would no doubt have won if it had come down to a sprint.
Then you have 'the combacks'... Evenepoel, Jakobsen and of course 'Cav'
Ye couldn't make this up, and while the first two are still on the road to recovery, there is no doubt that 'Cav' is on top form.
So... which looks better for QuickStep... a defence of the Green jersey with an injured Bennett or a stab at massive publicity with a reborn 'Cav' and his quest to equal at the least Merckx's tally of 34 stage wins... and possibly take Green as well.
And judging by the results so far, he is on course.
Morkov and Co. are now HIS best buddies, and Bennett....well, I think they've forgotten about him.
If Bennett had won at Gent and Scheldeprijs it might be a different story...

He's not even going to the Olympics, which I would have thought would have been a personal goal for any athlete.

Sam would have had two Hopes of a medal at the Olympics; Bob and No.

mr spuckler

swarlb wrote: »

He's not even going to the Olympics, which I would have thought would have been a personal goal for any athlete.

The course is completely unsuited to him so he'd be a passenger at best, to the cost of the team.

swarlb

mr spuckler wrote: »

The course is completely unsuited to him so he'd be a passenger at best, to the cost of the team.

Well... we'll never know. Be interesting to see who wins it in the end.

breezy1985

swarlb wrote: »

Well... we'll never know. Be interesting to see who wins it in the end.

No we do know he would not have a chance. Its like saying he could win on Tourmalet

happytramp

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and everything but I wonder if sam knew he'd be looking at philipsen and Merlier as his main rivals and a possible three stages in the first week would he have given it a bash, lack of racing or not.... Part of me feels he was put off by the attritional nature of last year and the difficulty of getting his first stage.

GetWithIt

breezy1985 wrote: »

No we do know he would not have a chance. Its like saying he could win on Tourmalet

You never know.

swarlb

GetWithIt wrote: »

You never know.

No, you don't.... someone here wrote that 'Cav will not win a stage, and Sagan will take the points jersey'

Looking good so far...

ratracer

With Sam and the latest contract debacle, it’s almost a case of history repeating itself…… didn’t he have a long drawn out end to his last contract with Bora also?
Can’t believe he’s going back there, but like it would be for most people, money talks!

1bryan

breezy1985 wrote: »

Trinity work pretty closely with Ineos. Hopefully though he doesnt end up there

yeah, it seems a lot of English speaking riders are with Trinity, and the predominantly English speaking teams have very close dealings with them.

Its a bit of a myth about Ineos being a Grand Tour team. Certainly, when it comes to Grand Tours, they're all about the overall, but they have good success outside of that too, particularly in early season semi-classics (if not in actual classics themselves), and 7-day stage races.

I remember going to the first week of the Tour in 2012 (I think it was), in Northern France and Belgium. Cavendish was with Sky and had no sprint train but still took 4 stages.

Obviously a sprinter wants his sprint train, but no matter where Sam ends up, he'll make the most of it, and I predict he'll take his fair share of victories with or without it.

1bryan

ratracer wrote: »

With Sam and the latest contract debacle, it’s almost a case of history repeating itself…… didn’t he have a long drawn out end to his last contract with Bora also?
Can’t believe he’s going back there, but like it would be for most people, money talks!

how do you mean 'debacle'? It seems to me what's happening with Sam is a very normal part of cycling and its caused by the timing of when contract negotiations take place, and when riders are actually free to ride for their new teams.

Sam has done nothing wrong here.

Bora is the team that brought Sam into the Protour. I'm sure he's always had a special affinity for them. Bora's reasons for investing in another sprinter were wholely understandable, given who their sponsors are. It didn't work out, so they want to rectify their 'error', and get their man back. Personally I think its a great move, if that's how things play out.

The real contract negotiation roller-coaster is on tour rest days. Expect the rumour mill to be in full swing after monday.

Macy0161

ratracer wrote: »

With Sam and the latest contract debacle, it’s almost a case of history repeating itself…… didn’t he have a long drawn out end to his last contract with Bora also?

There's no debacle. Lefevere has just been acting the bollox very early on in a contract year.

breezy1985

1bryan wrote: »

yeah, it seems a lot of English speaking riders are with Trinity, and the predominantly English speaking teams have very close dealings with them.

Its a bit of a myth about Ineos being a Grand Tour team. Certainly, when it comes to Grand Tours, they're all about the overall, but they have good success outside of that too, particularly in early season semi-classics (if not in actual classics themselves), and 7-day stage races.

I remember going to the first week of the Tour in 2012 (I think it was), in Northern France and Belgium. Cavendish was with Sky and had no sprint train but still took 4 stages.

Obviously a sprinter wants his sprint train, but no matter where Sam ends up, he'll make the most of it, and I predict he'll take his fair share of victories with or without it.

2012 is a long time ago and before Sky won a GT. Cavendish actually left for the exact reason people don't want Bennett to move there. Its not about trains it's about the fact he might not even get picked for a GT

Inquitus

Macy0161 wrote: »

There's no debacle. Lefevere has just been acting the bollox very early on in a contract year.

Was in the news today that Leferve is negotiating with Cavendish for next year, much as I hate the way PL has treated Sam, with Cav's current form it makes sense, he is getting a refound Cav for what will likely be a song, and with what he's shown this year he's better than almost everyone bar Caleb Ewan and our Sam, and Morkov makes up some of that gap along with the rest of the DQS train.

breezy1985

Inquitus wrote: »

Was in the news today that Leferve is negotiating with Cavendish for next year, much as I hate the way PL has treated Sam, with Cav's current form it makes sense, he is getting a refound Cav for what will likely be a song, and with what he's shown this year he's better than almost everyone bar Caleb Ewan and our Sam, and Morkov makes up some of that gap along with the rest of the DQS train.

We never really got Bennett vs Ackermann and only sort of got Bennett vs Sagan after he left Bora. Here's hoping nothing gets in the way of Bennett vs Cavendish.

Side note where the hell is Viviani

Viviani raced recently with the Italian team and took 2 stages in a 2.1 race. He's all in for the Olympics on the track.

Actually I think he's carrying the flag for Italy at the games too.

Ackermann won a 2.5km prologue in Romania yesterday against less than stellar opposition. I mentioned this in another thread but that race is well worth watching tomorrow on the races own facebook, the climb is unreal as far as views go!!!!!!!!!

dahat

Inquitus wrote: »

Was in the news today that Leferve is negotiating with Cavendish for next year, much as I hate the way PL has treated Sam, with Cav's current form it makes sense, he is getting a refound Cav for what will likely be a song, and with what he's shown this year he's better than almost everyone bar Caleb Ewan and our Sam, and Morkov makes up some of that gap along with the rest of the DQS train.

Same article also gives as much weight to the possibility of Cav retiring if he manages to win in Paris wearing green & breaking the record. I’d personally hope he would do that as retiring on a high like that would be perfect.

breezy1985

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Viviani raced recently with the Italian team and took 2 stages in a 2.1 race. He's all in for the Olympics on the track.

Actually I think he's carrying the flag for Italy at the games too.

Ackermann won a 2.5km prologue in Romania yesterday against less than stellar opposition. I mentioned this in another thread but that race is well worth watching tomorrow on the races own facebook, the climb is unreal as far as views go!!!!!!!!!

Glad to hear Viviani is on course for the Olympics he was always my favorite track rider outside of the Irish lads

retalivity

Sagan going to TotalEnergie with Oss, Bodnar and his brother.
Frees up a spot for Sam at Bora.

MPFGLB

I dont think he should go back to Bora esp with Ackermann still there

retalivity

MPFGLB wrote: »

I dont think he should go back to Bora esp with Ackermann still there

Don't think Bora are as high on Ackermann as they were, he's been a flop for the last year and a half