Sam Bennett (cyclist)  Sam Bennett (born October 16, 1990) is an Irish professional cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam . He turned professional in 2011, and has won five Grand Tour stages: three stages for in the 2018 Giro d'Italia, and two stages for at the 2019 Vuelta a España. Bennett was born in Wervik, Flanders, Belgium, where his father Michael played professional soccer for local club Eendracht Wervik. He moved with his parents to their native Ireland at the age of four, where he spent most of his early years growing up in Carrick-on-Suir, the hometown of fellow cyclist Sean Kelly. Bennett was head-hunted by Vélo Club la Pomme, Marseille, at 17 and joined them in the south of France after he completed his first year of third level education at Waterford Institute of Technology (where he was embarking on an Honours Degree in Health and Exercise Studies). In 2009, Bennett rode, for the first time, the Rás Tailteann with the Carrick Wheelers Dan Morrissey squad. During the 2010 season, Bennett won the under-23 road race at the Irish National Cycling Championships in Sligo, aged 19. In 2011, Bennett left France and joined Sean Kelly's squad, under the tutelage of manager Kurt Bogaerts. He again won the under-23 road race at the Irish National Cycling Championships and also the Grote Prijs Stad Geel, a UCI 1.2 ranked one day race. The following year he finished tenth in the under-23 road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Limburg, and seventh in the under-23 road race at the UEC European Road Championships. In 2013 moved up to Professional Continental level; Bennett won two stages in the Rás Tailteann – stage 3 into Listowel and stage 8 in Skerries – and stage 5 of the Tour of Britain, in which he also took two second places. Having joined in 2014, Bennett took his first professional win at the UCI 1.1 ranked Clásica de Almería and won twice in Germany: the Rund um Köln and stage 5 of the 1.HC ranked Bayern–Rundfahrt into Nuremberg. The 2015 season began for Bennett at the Tour of Qatar where he won the final stage, finishing in the Doha Corniche. Bennett took stage wins on the first and third stages at the Bayern–Rundfahrt, allowing him to win his first professional points classification jersey.