Fair warning – the next sentence is going to contain an outrageous statement, but bear with me. Could Sam Bennett be a dark horse to steal the Tour de France yellow jersey in Harrogate? OK, the Team NetApp-Endura rider is unlikely to get particularly favourable odds if he’s selected for cycling’s biggest race but the Irishman can certainly sprint – as he proved with a stage win at the Tour of Britain and reiterated in Qatar with a more than credible fifth place on stage four.
The Scottish-German team insist they are looking to peak in July after being awarded a Tour de France wildcard, so if fifth place is the platform to build on then who knows what Bennett can achieve at peak power? Furthermore, the cards of Messrs Cavendish, Greipel, Kittel and Sagan will be well and truly marked by their opponents, so if there is a similarly chaotic end to last year’s Grand Depart (coach drivers of Yorkshire, take note) it throws the race open for somebody to slip in under the radar. The Carrick-born rider heralds from the same part of Ireland as a certain Sean Kelly. Few expected 22-year-old Kelly to win a stage on his debut in 1978 either…
