Almost a year after he crashed heavily in the Scheldeprijs race, sustaining injuries which sidelined him for several weeks, Sam Bennett will head back to the event aiming to turn things around.

The race will take place next Wednesday in Belgium and, having won the opening stage of the Criterium International last Saturday, the Irish sprinter has started to benefit from the work he put in over the winter.

Although Bennett had perhaps the best off-season of his career with power figures to back that up, he missed out on a victory. Now that first win of the season has been achieved, he wants to maintain the momentum.

“It’s good for the morale,” the Bora-Argon 18 rider said. “It’s also good for the team that the confidence is there and that we can have a winning formula [in terms of teamwork]. I would have been happier with the result if there was some big name sprinters there, but a win is a win.”

Bennett believes the result will give the riders who work to lead him out renewed confidence in him.

“I still find myself a little unsure of myself . . . but that should go away at the end of any race when the red mist takes over,” he said.

He will line out in Scheldeprijs on Wednesday and then compete in the major Paris-Roubaix Classic.

Also racing in Belgium in the coming days is Matt Brammeier. The Team Dimension Data rider has structured his season around being in strong form for the big one-day races. He will compete in the Tour of Flanders on Sunday and Paris-Roubaix one week later. He might also ride Scheldeprijs, although that will depend on his recovery after Flanders.

“I struggled a bit with illness after Paris-Nice and I’m still trying to shake it off,” he said. “But I seem to be getting better and better every day.”

He said he felt solid in Gent-Wevelgem and then felt better again on Wednesday when he rode the final 150 kilometres of the Flanders course.

Rás teams

In other news, two more international teams have been announced for the An Post Rás. The Australian national team and the UCI Continental-level Riwal Platform squad from Denmark will compete in the eight day race, which begins at Dublin Castle on Sunday, May 22nd.

The Australian national team includes past world and track paracyclist Alistair Donohoe as well as former world junior time trial bronze medallist Michael Storer.

The Denmark Riwal Platform squad features two former Saxo Bank – Tinkoff riders, Jonas Aaen Jorgensen and Troels Vinther.

They have considerable experience and are likely to be a big factor in the action.