Sam Bennett resumed competition at the Arctic Race of Norway. The Irish rider kkad a difficult Tour de France after a heavy crash on stage 1 at Utah Beach. He broke his fingers, but he decided to try to finish the French three-week race.

“What have I done since the Tour de France? I slept mostly. I had to go to Germany to sort out the fingers. Then I was in Belgium for some crits but it was too much I think. All last week I was trying to recover. I don’t know if I’m recovered from the Tour", he told Cyclingnews.

He knows the Norwegian race. Indeed, the Bora-Argon 18 rider won a stage last year. "I really enjoyed winning stage 2 of the Arctic Race of Norway last year but it’s going to be difficult to repeat this. Last year I didn’t finish the Tour. When I saw the names of the sprinters on the start list this year, I thought it’s going to be a lot harder to get a stage win but if I’m in the right place at the right time and if I get lucky, it can happen. Sometimes… it’s unfortunate for climbers to say that but being a sprinter, you can be the slowest or the weakest and you can still win."

The Irishman explained that he will have a different race program to new teammate Peter Sagan at Bora next year. "I let them do their taking. I’m not a lead-out man, so I have no place there [at the Tour de France] then, but hopefully I’ll get a nice race program."

"[For the remainder of 2016], I have a lot of one-day [races] in Belgium”, said the 26-year-old. “I’ll keep going until the World’s, it’s a long season with a lot of opportunities left. I’d like to be in good condition in Qatar, but again, it’s the World Championships so everyone will be good there - it’s going to  be difficult. It’ll be a sprint anyway, so I’ll just go there and see what happens.”