George Bennett (cyclist)

In October 2014, it was announced that he would join LottoNL–Jumbo for the 2015 season.[15] In May 2015, he was barred from starting the Giro d'Italia due to low cortisol levels (later discovered to have been caused by illness), as per Mouvement pour un cyclisme crédible (MPCC) rules. He was not replaced by his team.[16]

George Bennett was named in the start list for the 2016 Tour de France[17] and finished in 53rd place.[18] His most impressive performance in the Tour de France was finishing seventh on stage nine at Andorre Arcalis, judged by some as the toughest stage that year.[9] He commented that "You are there in front of millions of people and it is some kind of dream. Especially that first stage, stage 9 where I was seventh. You start attacking them 30km from the line and think you are going to maybe get a result or something. It is good for growing and good for learning but I wouldn’t do that again. I really did enjoy it. I definitely felt the pressure, though, not personally, but you could sense a different atmosphere at the Tour. You could feel that people were a lot more stressed and things like that. I didn’t take any of that stress on because I was there as last minute call up and everything I did was a bonus really."[19]

George Bennett competed in the Men's individual road race at the 2016 Summer Olympics and came 33rd; he described the race as "absolutely" the toughest in his career, and 79 riders did not finish.[20]

After the Olympics, He was selected to ride in the 2016 Vuelta a España as a support rider for Steven Kruijswijk . When Kruijswijk withdrew, Bennett became the team leader. On stage 14, Bennett made the breakaway and came 4th in the mountainous stage to Aubisque 31 seconds behind the stage winner Robert Gesink.[21] He came 25th in the time trial on stage 19 to improve his overall standing to 10th on general classification, the highest ever placing for a New Zealander in a grand tour.[22][23] Bennett said that the season "started off reasonable and just got better and better...It's pretty hard to go past tenth at the Vuelta on a results base. That was pretty special".[24]

George Bennett was forced off the bike after contracting glandular fever, and this meant that he missed the 2017 New Zealand National road race championships and the Tour Down Under.[25]

In 2017, George Bennett became the first New Zealander to win the general classification at a UCI World Tour cycling event, when he won the Tour of California.[26] After making the breakaway, he came second in the hilly stage 2. On the uphill finish, Bennett got away with Rafal Majka and finished two seconds down on the stage. He said of the stage, "We all worked together well. We had the same ambitions...None of us can beat [Andrew] Talansky in a time trial so we wanted to put space between us."[27] In stage 5 where the stage finished at the top of Mt Baldy, Bennett came third, two seconds behind Andrew Talansky and Rafal Majka, leaving him in second place over all.[28] The individual time trial (stage 6) became the stage that would decide the Tour of California[29] Bennett, finished fourth in the 24 km time trial which put him into the race lead with a 35-second gap back to Rafal Majka.[30]

Bennett said "I was riding and I didn’t hear much over the radio, then just about halfway my director suddenly lit up and just got super excited, yelling in my ear and I knew that something was happening. It wasn’t really until a couple of K to go that I really stepped into it. I crossed the line and knew I had a good time. I was like third or fourth or something. I was waiting for the clock to tick down and it was a pretty nervous few minutes."[31]

Bennett also entered the Tour de France, and finished 7th on Stage 9, but retired midway through stage 16 when he came down with gastroenteritis.[32] He returned to Girona to recover.

With good early season form (4th New Zealand National road race championship, 11th Santos Tour Down Under, 9th Tirreno-Adriatico, 6th Volta Ciclista a Catalunya) George Bennett achieved his highest GC result in a Grand Tour when he came in eighth place overall in the 2018 Giro d'Italia. Bennett was disappointed with the result, having hoped for a higher place. He said of it "I came here for a lot more than that. But that's all I could do in the end. I'll take it and it's better than 11th. At the start of the Giro I wouldn't have signed up for it but some things were out of my control and maybe I got the build up wrong as I was a bit too good too soon."[33]

In August, he rode the Tour de Pologne, coming third on stage four and seventh on stage six to finish in fourth place on general classification, 24 seconds behind the winner Michal Kwiatkowski.[34]

George Bennett competed at the World Road Cycling Championships at Innsbrook in Austria. In the 265 kilometre mountainous race, Bennett finished in 18th place. He said of the New Zealand team riding for him "The biggest thing was riding with a great bunch of Kiwi guys. This was the big difference to be well supported here. The race was super-hard from the start which surprised us. It meant that Paddy (Bevin), Dion (Smith) and Sam (Bewley) had to work harder much earlier. But they looked after me and it was a really well-run team. That's the big positive for me."[35]

Bennett at the 2019 Tour of California, where he finished fourth overall.

George Bennett raced in support of Steven Kruijswijk at the 2019 Tour de France. Bennett found himself in 5th place after Jumbo Visma won the team time trial in stage two.[36] He increased this by one place in stage 3 and maintained 4th position until stage ten where he lost 9 minutes 41 seconds in the cross winds after riding back to get water bottles from the team car and missing the split.[37] Bennett commented that "It's one of the downsides of being in a really stacked team where they all can win. Then you have a guy like me who would be a GC leader on another team, you are on helping duties."[37][38]

George Bennett was involved in two crashes in stage 18, the first on a descent when he and Nicholas Roche fell and the second was in the last descent of the stage. Bennett crossed the line in 27th position.[39][40] He completed the Tour De France in 24th position.

In November 2019, Bennett underwent surgery to remove three ribs due to experiencing chronic slipping rib syndrome.[41]

Bennett started his 2020 season at the Tour Down Under where he placed 8th overall.[42] In February at the National Championships, Bennett finished second in the road race after spending 80 kilometres (50 miles) out in front by himself only for Shane Archbold to catch and sprint past him on the line.[43] When the season resumed after the interruption by the COVID-19 pandemic, he managed to get 5th overall in both the Vuelta a Burgos and the Tour de l'Ain. He participated in the Tour de France, where he wore Māori-themed Shimano S-Phyre shoes painted by his artist girlfriend, Caitlin Fielder.[44]

Bennett's form continued in August at Gran Piemonte where he attained his first ever one-day win. This was the one of only two days in the season where Bennett was able to ride as the team leader. He said of the victory "I’m really happy that I could do it today. I told the boys that I wanted to try and they really did a wonderful job".[45]

Three days later at Il Lombardia, he got the highest ever result by a New Zealander in a Cycling monument by placing second behind Jakob Fuglsang.[46] Bennett attacked on the final climb with 6.5 kilometres to go, but Jakob Fuglsang managed to stay on Bennett's wheel and then counterattacked. Bennett finished 31 seconds behind Fuglsang.[47]

George Bennett won the New Zealand road race title in February 2021 by almost two minutes. He attacked the group of Mark Stewart, Michael Torckler, Ryan Christensen and Michael Vink, successfully dropping them with 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) to go in the 174-kilometre (108 mi) race. Bennett said of the race "I've been trying for this title for 10 years. I have always wanted to win the jersey and to be able to wear it with my team all year on the World Tour is so special,"[48][49] George Bennett came second in the 44-kilometre (27 mi) km time trial two days earlier, finishing 0.7 seconds behind the winner Aaron Gate.[50]

Bennett was named as the team leader for Jumbo Visma for the 2021 Giro d'Italia. He was aiming for a top 5 finish.[51] However the first week was very disappointing as he struggled in the cold and wet conditions, losing time to his rivals on stage six.[52] He commented that "I would say it's by quite a long way the biggest disappointment, not one of, the biggest disappointment."[53] In the second half of the race, Bennett found better form, with a third place on stage 12[54] and a 7th place on stage 14 which finished with the climb up Monte Zoncolan.[55] He finished in 10th position on the uphill finish on stage 17.[56] He eventually finished in 11th position in the general classification. Bennett, instead of racing in that year's Tour de France, spent July preparing for the Tokyo Olympics where he was expected to ride in the time trial and the road race. The 234-kilometre (145 mi) men's road race, which featured 4865m of elevation gain, was expected to suit his climbing style.[57] Bennett ended up finishing the road race in twenty-sixth place, 6:20 down on winner Richard Carapaz.[58] He said of the race "I'm sure New Zealand just wasted six and a half hours watching that... I just didn't have it. It's a tough day. It happens".[59]