Surprise, excitement, a hint of regret. There's a mixture of feelings for George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) as the Tour de France nears its half way mark, but perhaps the overriding one is déjà vu.
The New Zealander started last year's Vuelta a España with the brief of working for Steven Kruijswijk and maybe chasing a stage win, but ended up infiltrating the upper echelons of the overall standings and, after switching his focus to riding for the general classification following the Dutchman's exit, finishing 10th in Madrid.
Having entered his second Tour de France with no objectives beyond stage victories, his approach was once again turned on its head on Sunday's stage through the Jura mountains. Bennett finished seventh in Chambéry, leading the second GC group on the road alongside Nairo Quintana, Dan Martin, and Simon Yates, and now finds himself 10th overall – an evolution that must now be embraced.
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"I've done quite a 180 on that one, actually," Bennett said with a grin, speaking to Cyclingnews in Périgueux ahead of the start of stage 10.
"I wasn't expecting to have any sort of ambitions for GC. I didn't think I'd be following the guys like that on a crazy mountain stage, but I had a really good day."
As was the case at the Vuelta, when he had to wait for Kruijswijk after a crash, Bennett again has that nagging sense of 'what might have been'. He crashed on the opening-day time trial in Düsseldorf and then sat back on the uphill finish to Longwy on stage 3. Those time losses didn't warrant a second thought at the time, but now it's difficult not to dwell on them.
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