Irish rider Sam Bennett has been forced out of tomorrow’s opening classic of the year, Milan-Sanremo, after falling ill. His Bora-hansgrohe team has confirmed he is unwell and will not take to the start line of the 293km race in Milan tomorrow.
Bennett has been searching for his form since the start of the season and while he took a 2nd and 3rd placings on stages of the UAE Tour last month, his usual winning kick in the sprints has been absent.
However, the Irishman suffered a difficult year last season with injury. He hit his knee off the handlebars while training and that mishap effectively derailed his season from late May until the end of the campaign.
While he return to racing action late last year and rode five one-day races, he did so as a domestique for Deceuninck-QuickStep and did not finish of those events.
That means he has not been in top form since last May and he is still building his condition. While it was hoped getting Paris-Nice into his legs last week would help his condition, he has unfortunately been forced out of tomorrow’s race.
At the time of writing, neither Bennett nor his Bora-hansgrohe team had commented on the nature of his illness. However, flu and similar conditions have swept through the pro peloton in recent weeks and Bennett is among a long list of riders forced out of tomorrow’s race.
They include last year’s winner Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), 2019 winner Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), European champion Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Victorious), runner-up in 2019 Oliver Naesen (AG2R-Citroën) and 2015 race winner John Degenkolb (Team DSM), among many others.
