{"id":334505,"date":"2025-12-08T08:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334505\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T08:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:10:09","slug":"sam-bennett-targets-a-resurgence-with-move-to-q36-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334505\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Bennett targets a resurgence with move to Q36.5"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nDespite a long and successful professional career in which he has amassed 71 professional wins, Bennett has only ridden the Tour de France<\/a> four times. His Tour trajectory has been uneven: repeatedly overshadowed at Bora-hansgrohe due to Peter Sagan\u2019s leadership, sidelined by injury in 2021, and omitted from selections in 2022, 2023 and 2025. His best performance came in 2020, back in his prime days, getting two stage wins and securing the green jersey.”My career was launched by Kurt Bogaerts, so it feels as if I\u2019ve taken a winding path home. As a sprinter, my career has been shaped by hunting for wins and I\u2019ve been really fortunate to have been given lots of great opportunities to perform, and win, at all 3 Grand Tours,” Bennett said in a press release the day his signing for the team was announced back in October<\/a>.Why Q36.5 believes Bennett can return to his best<\/p>\n

Age is always a factor, especially when you are 35 years old, as it is the case of Bennett. Still, Bogaerts believes the Irish sprinter can return to his best shape. \u201cSam had a bad crash in Poland and that, in combination with having no contract for next year\u2026they were not good ingredients for Sam, knowing him for a long time. I think that was a bit unfortunate. We looked into him in depth. And we don\u2019t see any issue on a health or medical side that he can\u2019t return to his best level.\u201d<\/p>\n

“We saw in other careers that you can still win after 35,” he insisted. \u201cIt\u2019s mainly in the head, I think. Physically, if you want to do it, if you want to work hard, if you are aware that the sport is moving on and that you need to be open to potentially do some different type of training, then I think a lot is possible.”<\/p>\n

The coach stressed that the decisive factor to get the best of Bennett is his mindset, and not his physical condition. \u201cI think he needs belief, for sure.\u00a0From a young age, I believed in Sam and his capabilities. I think many riders, they want to feel the belief around them.\u00a0I don\u2019t know how I work with him or how I work with athletes, but definitely I think I\u2019m able to do the right things. That he feels that there is belief in him and from our team in him, and\u00a0I think that\u2019s a massive step for every athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"bennett<\/p>\n

Sam Bennett secured the green jersey at the Tour de France 2020<\/p>\n

Bennett’s plans for 2026<\/p>\n

With preparations underway, Bennett has begun integrating into Q36.5\u2019s system, meeting teammates and planning his schedule. A Tour de France wildcard is an ambition (Q36.5 Pro Cycling is currently a ProTour team, which means it has no automatic invitation to any of the Grand Tours), but the immediate target is simply to win again.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s try to do the winter good and to get integrated into the team. We need to build everything gradually step by step. To not make mistakes now in the build-up. We need to leave this last season behind and to focus on the basics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q36.5 knows signing Bennett carries risk, as his past seasons have been far from successful. However, Bogaerts embraces the responsibility. “I think the pressure is on me and my team. Sam shows the commitment. Sam shows the hunger. He wants to work and now it\u2019s up to myself and the team to give him the right people around him to be able to be to be successful again.”<\/p>\n

He also admited that the decision is emotional as well as professional. \u201cI cannot deny there is a personal touch here. I\u2019m happy we found an agreement. Now it\u2019s back to the basics, do everything right and work hard. To get good communication between each other and the team. Then the rest will follow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite a long and successful professional career in which he has amassed 71 professional wins, Bennett has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,186719,784,165724,173684,4786,85,2845],"class_list":["post-334505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bora-hansgrohe","tag-cycling","tag-decathlon-ag2r-la-mondiale-team","tag-kurt-bogaerts","tag-sam-bennett","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}