Leadout man Zak Demoster has told Sticky Bottle that Sam Bennett is “a little bit crazy” and that makes working for him easier, as he is prepared to go through gaps others wouldn’t even attempt to squeeze through.

“I look after Sam, I’m one of the last guys with him usually,” explained Demspter.“With our team last year we didn’t have a train like Lotto-Belisol or HTC Highroad had in the past. So usually we’d try and get Vossy (Paul Voss) to drop us off pretty early; like with 10k to go and then I’ll try to look after Sam.”

“Sam’s willing to take risks and he’s not scared of anyone – it’d be a lot harder if he was,” added Dempster.

“With Sam we kind of freestyle through the head of the race a bit and if I can get him into the top five with 500metres to go it’s ideal. I always try to get him towards the front early and then we come back into the trains and sit on the wheels if we need to.”

This was done to deadly effect, when Bennett was delivered to a sprint win in the final stage of the Tour of Qatar, where he took the biggest win of his short career.

Dempster is confident that he, Bennett and leadout man Shane Archbold can work together to achieve some great results for Team Bora-Argon 18.

“We have a good relationship and get on really well; he trusts me and I trust him.”

“This year we’ll be together for pretty much every race and I’m really looking forward to the next couple of years working together. I really think we can attain some big successes. It’s really motivating.”