George Bennett last year relentlessly attacked his way to victory in the road race at the New Zealand’s Elite Road National Championships and now, after finally getting his year of wearing the silver fern, says he enters Sunday’s road race in Cambridge with less pressure on his shoulders
“There’s always pressure on a race but way less for me this time,” said Bennett in a Cycling New Zealand statement. “A lot of the times, it does not matter if you are the strongest in the race, the national champs is out of your hands in a number of ways – the way others race.”
The 31-year-old rider, who has this year shifted over to UAE Team Emirates after seven years with Jumbo-Visma, had twice come second in the road race at the event before making it to the top step after ten years of trying. In 2021 Bennet also took silver in the time trial, just 0.7 seconds behind winner Aaron Gate.
Bennett will be lining up in the 42.5 kilometre time trial on Friday again this year, which includes the Te Miro climb and 360m of elevation gain. The road race is then on Sunday, when Bennett will be racing alongside new UAE Team Emirates teammate Finn Fisher-Black and giving his UAE jersey its first race outing.
The 144km men’s road race takes in four laps of a 36.5km course, including a more than 3km long climb of Maungakawa. The circuit has an elevation gain per lap of 488m and starts and finishes in Cambridge, though no spectators are allowed under the nation’s COVID-19 red light setting.
“While the climb is important, equally there is a lot of fairly flat riding after it to complete the lap, so who knows how it will pan out,” said Bennett. “You have to play your hand, be as strong as you can – but it is not always about being the strongest in this race. You have to enjoy it as well. I can’t honestly say which way the race will go.”
While Bennett will, unusually, have a teammate when he lines up as defending champion on Sunday and is fresh from a "really good training block", his New Zealand-based rivals will have the benefit of far stronger numbers. Continental team Bolton Equities Black Spoke Pro Cycling, which includes 2019 winner James Fouché, has seven riders on the start list of the elite men’s category and another two in the U23 category. The elite and U23 men race together.
“Black Spoke need to win this race more than I do. It is their race to lose,” said Bennett pointing to the size of the squad and focus on the race as an important feature of their season. ”There’s a lot more pressure on them to get a result.”
The men’s race, with 72 riders in the field, follows the U23 and elite women’s event on Sunday and will close out the Elite Road National Championships for 2022.
