The Giro d'Italia started last Friday, but for Sam Bennett it really begins today.
Two hilly stages and a time trial did not play to Bennett’s strengths thus far, but ahead of the first flat stage, he is in a determined frame of mind.
A Grand Tour success is long overdue. It is now almost five years since he took two stages plus the green jersey at the Tour de France. It’s almost three since he took a pair of stages at the Vuelta a Espana.
Since then the Tipperary man been trying to get back to that same level of form but, thanks to extensive testing and a revised approach with his coach Stephen Barrett, he is in an optimistic frame of mind.
"We saw that in the last three, four years that I've been training my sprint more to get [pedalling] speed, because we thought that I was missing speed in my sprint," Bennett told RTÉ Sport.
"But when we did more digging, we saw that it was torque I was missing. So we had to build more torque and power into the speed."
To put that in layman’s terms, it meant a lot more strength work than before, adding heft to his workouts. It’s a bit of a gamble but Barrett believes it should result in a return to the higher level of before.
Thus far this year, the signs are encouraging.
Bennett won two stages of the Tour de la Provence in February, and more recently took a pair of stages in the Region Pays de la Loire Tour.
The latter race in particular give him belief that he is on the right track.
"Pays de la Loire was good because we did a really nice sprint on the first stage and then raced quite aggressive and quite hard in places [on stage two] where it would be quite difficult for myself to win.
"The third stage was nice, where there was an uphill finish. That was good for the confidence, to show that there was strength there. And also to watch the [power] numbers afterwards too.
"But you still have to go out and do it here. I have a fantastic team here to help me do that. And I hope we can get some victories here."
Bennett’s coach Barrett comes from quite close to the sprinting star’s hometown of Carrick-on-Suir, and they have formed a tight bond since starting to work together.
That partnership began when Bennett moved to the French Decathlon Ag2r la Mondiale team a year and a half ago, where Barrett was one of the coaches.
He also trained the Australian Ben O’Connor, who took second overall in last year’s Vuelta a Espana and in the world road race championships but, by his own admission, had limited experience working with sprinters.
That presented a steep learning curve early on but now, well over a year in, Barrett feels they are making real progress.
"If you see Sam on TV and you watch him riding, he visually looks quite torquey," Barrett said. "He rides a big gear, he doesn’t have a very high cadence.
"So you can be tricked into thinking he lacks leg speed, which in actual fact he doesn’t.
"We did some sprint profile testing with him. It was really good and we incorporated that at the start of the year. The sessions included higher power, shorter duration efforts at 45 or 50 rpm where he is producing, if you want to get technical about it, somewhere in the region of 120, 130, 140 Newton meters in his sprints.
"We had set ranges that we wanted to expose him to. And he has responded, I would say, extremely well."
That’s quite technical, in terms of physiology, but it boils down to one thing. "It goes back to where he has always been good," Barrett said.
"When he won his sprints previously, he could hold a high power for a longer period of time. We’ve now seen a significant change in not so much his peak power, but his ability to sustain his peak power for longer."
"It would just show that I'm still here."
Thus far at the Giro Bennett has finished far back. Like many of the sprinters, he is not a strong climber and the tough terrain of stages one and three in Albania did not suit him. Once the going got tough on each day he sat back and saved energy for later in the race, while the Danish rider Mads Pedersen - who is more of an all rounder than Bennett - took both victories and the overall lead.
Today ( Alberobello to Lecce, 189km) and Thursday (Ceglie Messapica to Matera, 151km) should be the first opportunities for Bennett to go head to head with him and the other sprinters.
Former world champion Pedersen is in flying form but Bennett has taken him on and beaten him quite a few times in the past. He did so to take the first two stages in the 2022 Vuelta a Espana, and also earlier this year in his victories in the Tour de la Provence.
Bennett's hope is that the same pure speed will translate into success in the days ahead in the Giro, and indeed later in the race.
Now 34 years of age and inching towards the end of his career, it’s important for him to end his long wait for another grand tour stage win.
"It’s been a while, so that would be quite nice," he said. "It would also back up the changes we've made the last couple of weeks and months, to show that we are going in the right direction.
"It would just show that I’m still here."
Importantly, Bennett is an athlete who is very much influenced by how things are going. When he’s on the back foot it can be hard for him to turn things around and get the best out of himself. But, more importantly, when he starts winning, he often keeps doing so.
Success builds momentum and if things fall into place he could be on a roll.
There are several sprint opportunities over the two and half weeks but, all going to plan, he will hit the ground running and get a big result sooner rather than later.
"His confidence is high," Barrett told RTE. "In terms of what’s possible in the Giro, we are all fairly clear that a stage win is possible. There are certainly two or three opportunities coming up.
"We know he is sprinting well, we know the competition is quite high in the Giro, but we have no reason to believe that he can’t win a stage. Certainly that’s the goal."
Bennett is also clear on what he wants: "I still have that hunger. I still want it as bad. I still get that pain in my gut every time I lose a race, so I know the want is still there."
