Sam Bennett

Bora-Hansgrohe sprinter Sam Bennett, born on October 16, 1990 in Flanders, Belgium and four years later his family moved back to their native Ireland. After a stint as a stagiaire with WorldTour team Française des Jeux in 2010, he raced three seasons at the Continental level, where he earned three victories including a stage at the Tour of Britain. 

The Irishman stepped up to the pro ranks in 2014 with Bora-Argon 18, which transformed to Bora-Hansgrohe. He spent seven of the next nine seasons with the programme, with a move from 2020-2021 with Deceuninck-QuickStep.

He began to make an impression with his explosive speed in 2015, when he won two stages at Bayern Rundfahrt, one stage at Tour of Qatar and a stage at Arctic Race of Norway. Two years later, he racked up 15 individual podiums, including four wins across six stages at the Tour of Turkey and four podiums at the Giro d’Italia, which gave him third place in the points classification at just his third Grand Tour appearance.

At the 2018 Giro d'Italia he scored three stage wins at the Giro, and another five podiums, to solidify himself as one of the fastest men in the peloton. By the end of 2019, he had added a pair of stage wins at the Vuelta a España and an Irish road race national title to his growing list of palmares.

QuickStep signed Bennet for 2020 and 2021, where his list of triumphs increased with two stages at the Tour de France and another at the Vuelta, as well as the Classic Brugge-De Panne. That first season with QuickStep saw him win on the biggest stage, on the Champs-Élysées on stage 21 of the Tour and secure the green jersey.

Bennett returned to Bora-Hansgrohe for the 2022 and 2023 seasons, taking a big win at Eschborn-Frankfurt and then back-to-back stages at the Vuelta that first year back. He started the next campaign on a high by winning the opening stage of the Vuelta a San Juan in January and then adding two podiums at UAE Tour and a second place on the opening stage at Paris-Nice. He was left off the Tour squad for a second consecutive year and was only able to add a pair of wins at the Sibiu Cycling Tour in July, a consolation prize.

Bennett moved across to the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team in 2024 and scored four stage wins and the overall at the 4 Jours de Dunkerque.

Key results

2024

🥇 Four stages and overall at 4 Jours de Dunkerque

2023

🥇 Two stages at Sibiu Cycling Tour

🥇 One stage at Vuelta a San Juan

🥈 One stage at Paris-Nice

🥈 One stage at UAE Tour

🥉 Irish National Championships, road race

2022

🥇 Two stages at Vuelta a España

🥇 Eschborn-Frankfurt

🥉One stage at Tour de France

2021

🥇 Two stages and points classification at Volta ao Algarve

🥇 Two stages at Paris-Nice

🥇 Two stages at UAE Tour

🥇 Brugge-De Panne

🥈 Scheldeprijs

2020

🥇 Two stages and points classification at Tour de France

🥇 One stage at Vuelta a España

🥇 One stage at Tour de Wallonie

🥇 One stage at Tour a Burgos

🥇 Race Torquay

🥇 One stage at Tour Down Under

2019

🥇 Two stages at Vuelta a España

🥇 Three stages and points classification at BinckBank Tour

🥇 Two stages at Vuelta a España

🥇 One stage at Critérium du Dauphiné

🥇 Two stages and points classification at Tour of Turkey

🥇 Two stages at Paris-Nice

🥇 One stage UAE Tour

🥇 Irish National Championships, road race

2018

🥇 Two stages and points classification at Tour of Turkey

🥇 Three stages at Giro d’Italia