Sam Bennett is by no means calm, but the Beulah-Hansgrohe racer is certainly calm at the Tour de Pollogne.

The sprint tussles on the first and second days "When you put that many egos into a race, including my own, it always gets a little messy," Bennett said, half-jokingly laughing.

On his return to racing after missing the Tour two years in a row, he replied amiably, "I'm just looking forward to it."

On the possibility of competing in the Vuelta a España, his first Grand Tour since 2020: "It's possible.

With a series of answers like these, one might think Bennett is looking at the long haul. However, it could be argued that he is too focused on getting good results among the formidable sprinters, not to mention staying out of trouble, to have time to worry about what might happen in the future or what has happened so far.

In the first sprint of the first stage, where there was a big crash, Bennett almost crashed in another accident, "I don't know how it happened," he says. And on Sunday, Bennett was in the pack until near the finish, but did not have the form to turn his fifth place of the day into something even better.

"Yesterday [stage 2] was a chaotic sprint, but there are a lot of sprint trains here, a lot of sprinters ....... I don't know how many sprinters are here, but when you bring so many egos into a race, including my own, it's always a little bit chaotic," he told Cycling News before stage 3.

"So yesterday [Sunday] was just a normal chaotic sprint because there were a lot of corners and stuff, but it went on a little longer. But it was a lot of fun."

Bennett said his own condition is improving, but not as much as he would like yet.

"It's getting a little bit better. Maybe there was a little more on the first day, but yesterday I was like, 'Did I step on the gas a little too much to get a good flow to the line? It took me a while, but it's not that far off."

This summer, the Bora-Hansgrohe sprinter was one of the victims of Bora-Hansgrohe's decision to focus on GC contender Alexandre Vlasov in the Tour, which left him out of the selection.

Bora himself recognized that not being able to participate in the Tour de France was a setback for Bennett, and sport director Rolf Aldag told Cycling News, "It would be very strange if he wasn't disappointed." Rather than dwelling on that, however, Bennett said that his essential goal now is "to win a stage here and move on."

He said that "I've been working hard to get back to the top, to get to the top, to get to the top, to get to the top.

However, the race schedule after Pollogne is still undecided. I'm not sure yet," he said. I'm going to race in the European Championships and see how that goes."

He would like to compete in the Vuelta, but it is not yet clear whether Giro d'Italia champion Jay Hindley will go for the overall or support the Colombian.

So back to Pologna, a country that hasn't raced since the Junior European Track Championships: "I won, but for the life of me I can't remember where it was," he grins. And he relies on his great backup to help him focus on the task at hand. [Jordi (Mees), Ryan (Mullen), and Shane Archibald. They've been phenomenal from the beginning, but their experience is growing and growing. So it should be good."