George Bennett

New Zealander George Bennett, born April 7, 1990, began racing bicycles as a junior with a club team and then focused on a career in the pro peloton as a 21-year-old with the Trek-Livestrong development programme and as a stagiaire with the RadioShack WorldTour team. That first year he impressed with the overall win at Tour of Wellington and then second overall at Ronde de l’Isard in France. 

After two full years with RadioShack, where he made his Grand Tour debut at the Giro d’Italia in 2013, he moved to Cannondale and capped the year completing the Vuelta a España.

LottoNL-Jumbo then became his home for seven seasons. In 2016, his second year with the team, Bennett had a breakthrough year which saw him make his Tour de France and Olympic Games debuts and finish 10th overall at the Vuelta. Bennett won his first career GC title at the 2017 Amgen Tour of California, including two stage podiums across a steady week of riding. He earned a pair of top 10s on stages 9 and 12 at the Tour de France, which put him in 12th position overall, but illness forced him to abandon stage 16.

The New Zealander took top 10 at the 2018 Giro d'Italia. The next year he was sixth overall at Paris-Nice and then returned to the Amgen Tour of California after missing the previous year and finished fourth overall. 

In 2020 he went back-to-back with a victory at Gran Piemonte and second at Il Lombardia. The 2021 season began with a New Zealand road title and he took the silver medal in the individual time trial. He had three top 10s on stages at the Giro, finishing 11th overall. 

The 2022 season saw Bennett in the new colours of UAE Team Emirates and he racked up four GC top 10s - New Zealand Cycle Classic, Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, Tour de l’Ain and Tour de Langkawi - however, one main goal was to help Tadej Pogačar at the Tour de France. That quest was derailed with a positive test for COVID-19, which did not allow him to start stage 9. Pogačar ended up finishing second behind Jumbo Visma’s Jonas Vingegaard.

The Tour de Suisse was a key target in 2023 in a Tour build-up, but Bennett was caught in a crash on stage 2 in Switzerland and then pulled out before stage 5. He went to the Tour of Austria, finishing seventh on GC, after not being selected for a sixth Tour de France.

The New Zealander signed a two-year contract to race for Israel-Premier Tech in 2024 and 2025, strengthening the ProTeam's climbing squad. He used those climbing skill to earn third overall at Il Giro d'Abruzzo, followed that with third overall at Sibiu Cycling Tour to set up a return to the Vuelta a España, where he was in the GC top 10 until midway through the second week.

Key Results

2024

🥈 One stage and mountains classification at Il Giro d'Abruzzo

🥉 GC at Giro d'Abruzzo

🥉 One stage and GC at Sibiu Cycling Tour

2023

🥈 New Zealand Road Nationals time trial

2022

🥈 One stage and GC at Vuelta a Castilla y Leon

Fourth GC at Tour de Langkawi

2021

🥇 New Zealand Road Nationals road race

🥈New Zealand Road Nationals time trial

🥉 One stage Giro d’Italia

2020

🥇 Gran Piemonte

🥈 Il Lombardia 

🥈 One stage Vuelta a Burgos

🥈 New Zealand Road Nationals road race

🥈 New Zealand Road Nationals time trial

2019

🥉 One stage at Amgen Tour of California

Fourth GC Amgen Tour of California

2018

🥈 Two stages Tour of the Alps

2017

🥇  GC at Amgen Tour of California