Sam Bennett recovering from bad crash sustained in Belgian race

Sam Bennett’s road to recovery from a bad crash in Wednesday’s Scheldeprijs race is moving smoother than first expected, with the concerning images of the Irishman lying motionless near the finish being replaced by positive messages.

Both he and his team have said that he will be back in action soon, with the cuts, scrapes and whiplash he suffered being treated in hospital in Belgium.

“Regarding the whiplash, yes I did hit my head very hard, so I was dizzy and my upper scalp is sore. This morning I could barely lift my head because my muscles were all sore,” he said. “But that was expected.”

Bennett hit the deck while in contention for the win in the race. The expected bunch sprint was affected by a mass crash inside the final kilometre.

He was already scheduled to have a three week break from racing and expects to return to training next week.

Tour of Flanders

In other news six Irish riders will contest the under 23 Tour of Flanders tomorrow.

An Post

Chain Reaction

Sean Kelly

trio

Ryan Mullen

, Eoin McCarthy and

Jack Wilson

will join

Cormac Clarke

,

Thomas Fallon

and

David Montgomery

.

Meanwhile, two other An Post riders, Conor Dunne and Sean Downey, will be part of the squad in the Circuit des Ardennes International, starting today.

They are both hoping to ride the An Post Rás, which begins on May 17th. The race organisers have confirmed that a team which has played a major part in the past two editions will return, with the Azerbaijan Synergy Baku squad set to try to add to its haul of stage wins.

It has taken two each in 2013 and 2014, and also took second overall with Conor McConvey two years ago and fifth with Christoph Schweizer last May.

“This season, with the route being a route to suit an aggressive rider as opposed to a specialist, we have a very good chance to give our young riders on the team the opportunity to race a good stage race that is well within their limits,” said general manager David McQuaid yesterday.

The team’s main goal is to help young riders from Azerbaijan develop and so the squad will likely be a mixture of those plus older, more experienced riders.