Following a mid-season break, Sam Bennett will return to action in tomorrow's Ride London Classic. The Irishman will lead NetApp-Endura in the race that is expected to end in a bunch sprint.

After the record number of spectators at the start of the Tour de France in Great Britain, the cycling circus will return to England this weekend. On the agenda is the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic. The race starts off in the center of the English capital, travels 193 kilometers through the county of Surrey before finishing up in front of Buckingham Palace. After a six-week break from racing, Sam Bennett will once again be taking part in the action. The Irish sprinter will also be supported there by Scott Thwaites, who last weekend took the bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games, which means he was the best English rider in the road race. In addition, Austrian rider Gregor Mühlberger will be competing on Sunday in his first race as a stagiaire for the highest-ranked German cycling squad.

“Sam is returning after a rather long break. Although he’s well prepared, after so many weeks the only way to see what shape he’s in is as part of an actual race. The character of the race is such that we can expect a sprint finish, and our team is also set up for that. We’ll focus on the sprint, riding for Sam with the conviction that he’ll deliver a good result,” said Sport Director Enrico Poitschke, on the prospects for the race.

After following a relatively flat course along the Thames for the first kilometers of the race, the first mountain classification will follow in Staple Lane, just under 70 kilometers later. And then it will continue to be hilly after that. The best-known of the total of five mountain classifications is Box Hill, which had to be crossed nine times during the London Olympics road race. The course’s final 50 kilometers are flat, which means a mass sprint is very likely. So it will be a race that should suit our Irish sprinting rocket Sam Bennett rather well.

Line-up:

Sam Bennett, Iker Camano, Zak Dempster, Jonathan McEvoy, Scott Thwaites, Gregor Mühlberger