His Bora-Hansgrohe teammate and lead-out man, Ryan Mullen, admitted in an interview Tuesday that Bennett tested positive for COVID-19.
"It's unfortunate for Sam, for the team, and for myself. 'Sam is a great guy and he's back to his best form, but unfortunately COVID has caught up with him. Obviously someone somewhere brought it in and it's going around the whole team
"It's very disappointing and Sam will be disappointed. He deserves to be here and has put in the work.
"There is no doubt he would have won the green jersey. Perhaps now Mads Pedersen will walk to Madrid with the green jersey in his hand and one finger in his nose. That's the reality, but still, it's a shame."
Beulah Hansgrohe later confirmed the positive test and stated: "Sam Bennett tested positive for antigen this morning and also showed some symptoms. Sam Bennett tested positive for antigens this morning and also showed some symptoms.
Bennett, who was in 147th place overall, was scheduled to start the 30.9 km time trial from Elche to Alicante as the 11th rider. However, when the early racers began their runs, it was discovered that Bennett was the latest DNS.
Bennett had won stages 2 and 3 in the Netherlands and was in contention for the green points jersey, just five points behind class leader Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), who held the jersey until stage 8.
He was the eighth rider to leave the race between the end of stage 9 on Sunday and the start of the time trial, and the 12th rider to leave the race after testing positive for COVID-19.
Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers), Jose Elada (Cofidis), Harry Sweeney, Jarrad Drizners (Lot Soudal), and Matthias Norsgaard (Movistar) left the race due to positive COVID-19 tests, and Eduardo Affini (Jumbo Visma) and Floris de Tia (Alpecin Deceuninck) are out with illness and saddle sores, respectively.
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