{"id":384459,"date":"2026-01-22T16:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T16:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/384459\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T16:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T16:13:08","slug":"i-had-heart-flutters-palpitations-and-an-uneasy-sensation-in-my-chest-sam-bennett-back-training-after-heart-scare-and-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/384459\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I had heart flutters, palpitations and an uneasy sensation in my chest’ \u2013 Sam Bennett back training after heart scare and surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Bennett has resumed training after suffering a heart scare late last year, which turned out to be atrial fibrillation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Irish sprinter, who signed for Pinarello Q36.5 for 2026<\/a>, had an ablation procedure to treat it, and is now back on the bike.<\/p>\n

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Speaking to the Irish Independent<\/a> this week, Bennett explained that he had “heart flutters, palpitations and an uneasy sensation”, which was inexplicable.<\/p>\n

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“To be honest, I didn\u2019t want to annoy anybody. I kind of waited until I knew the doctors would be awake and I rang them then,” the 35-year-old said. “Towards the end of last year, I wasn\u2019t going great and I couldn\u2019t understand what was happening. I started back training and I had some weird sensations for the first three days.<\/p>\n

“I was thinking, ‘Whoa, I\u2019m really unfit here!’ That night, I was in bed and started getting heart flutters, palpitations and an uneasy sensation in my chest. I could feel my heart rate rising and the fact that I didn\u2019t know what was happening didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n

“I rang the team doctors at Pinarello<\/a> Q36.5 and the medical team were absolutely amazing. I think it happened on November 14 and the next day I was straight into a top specialist.”<\/p>\n

Bennett, who has won stages at all three Grand Tours, was operated on mid-November, before he endured a prescribed period of rest, before a measured return to the bike.<\/p>\n

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Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac issue in midlife cyclists<\/a>. It is caused by disordered electrical signals generated within the heart\u2019s upper-chambers (atria), and most often presents as an abnormally high reading on your heart monitor, with a consequent 30% immediate drop in power.<\/p>\n

>>> I wrote the book on midlife cyclist health \u2013 but missed the heart risk that nearly killed me<\/a><\/p>\n

“After the ablation and completing all necessary medical checks the athlete was cleared to progressively resume training,” Dr Lorenz Emmert, the team’s doctor, said in a statement. “The return to activity has been structured, gradual, and closely monitored at every stage, fully in line with medical protocols.”<\/p>\n

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“Seeing Sam back in training is the most important and positive sign,” Pinarello Q36.5 manager, Doug Ryder, added. “He approached the process with patience and professionalism, and the team supported him at every step. We remain fully behind him, first as a person, and then as a rider.”<\/p>\n

“Health comes first,” Bennett said. “They\u2019ve [the team have] been amazing. We\u2019re just going to take it step by step, see how things develop. I\u2019ve had a lot of time off now. We have to see how the body reacts to the stimulus we give it.<\/p>\n

“I was on blood thinners for eight weeks. I couldn\u2019t risk crashing, but I\u2019m up and running, I\u2019m back on the road. There\u2019s nothing really planned, but I don\u2019t want to be too relaxed about it. I\u2019m setting myself the end of March to be ready so that I don\u2019t take my foot off the gas, but I can only do what the body lets me do.”<\/p>\n

Bennett spent two years at Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale before signing for his new team. He won nine races in that time, but none at WorldTour level, where he had established himself as one of the best sprinters in the world previously.<\/p>\n

“In the past few years, I have had lots of these weird sensations,” he told the Irish Independent. “They said it could be possible that I was having mini-episodes that blocked me from going harder in the sprints. What happened with me was that the top two chambers were beating twice as fast as the bottom two.<\/p>\n

“I was getting 30 or 40% less flow, so when I went into sprints, I\u2019d go to sprint and I\u2019d have to sit down, which kind of matches up, but I won\u2019t know if it was that until I start racing again.”<\/p>\n

As for this season, Bennett said: “My first target is to hit a high enough level to be competing again. If I\u2019m doing that, then, for sure, I\u2019d love to ride one [a Grand Tour] again. But I don\u2019t want to waste people\u2019s time anymore. I\u2019ve been given a lifeline with this team. It\u2019s all or nothing this year and I\u2019m all in.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Bennett has resumed training after suffering a heart scare late last year, which turned out to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-384459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}