They say the third time is the charm, and George Bennett will hope that's the case when it comes to the Giro d’Italia in a week’s time. Although the Kiwi says he loves competing in Italy, the corsa rosa has not been a kind mistress to him.
Bennett will line up in Jerusalem next Friday as LottoNL-Jumbo’s general classification leader, and he is counted among the favourites, particularly after a strong ride at last week’s Tour of the Alps. It is a far cry from his first appearance at the race in 2013, his debut Grand Tour, where he finished a lowly 122nd overall.
"It was the worst three weeks of my life," Bennett tells Cyclingnews. "I managed to over-train myself at the Sierra Nevada. I started the camp being a hero and I finished it being the worst rider. I went to Romandie and I was last every day, and then I went to the Giro and I was shit. I just had the worst time. You learn a lot about what not to do."
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The record books will show that Bennett has only ridden the Giro d’Italia once before, but he was on the start list of another. He was set to line out at the 2015 edition but was pulled from the team on the eve of the race when a regular test by the Mouvement Pour un Cyclisme Crédible (MPCC) showed that he had low cortisol levels.
Low levels of cortisol can be indicative of cortisone use as well as other health uses, and MPCC rules dictate that riders must be removed from racing if they register levels below the norm. Bennett worried that his reputation could be tarnished and underwent a series of tests to prove he hadn’t done anything untoward, with LottoNL-Jumbo soon leaving the MPCC.
"At the time I was upset about the Giro but I was more concerned about my reputation," Bennett says. "We worked very closely with this guy who used to run a WADA lab and was one of the leading anti-doping experts in the world. We went to somewhere in Maastricht and did the testing, and we measured my cortisol. You piss in a cup for three days. They measure everything and they relate it to everything and then they say you have not taken cortisone.
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You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/third-time-the-charm-george-bennett-returns-to-the-giro-ditalia
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