Did George Bennett ride up the Zoncolan twice?
The Jumbo-Visma cyclist shows support for his teammate
Saturday’s Giro d’Italia stage 14 finished with the toughest climb in the 2021 Giro, and, for a few days, fans thought that George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) rode it twice.
Riding up the Sutrio side of Monte Zoncolan the riders took on an average gradient of 8.5 per cent over 14.1 kilometres. The climb features brutal 20 per cent sections and cyclists fought their way up the wall of a hill to conclude the 205km stage. Bennett finished the climb fifth in the break and seventh overall—2:10 down from surprise winner Lorenzo Fortunato of Alberto Contador and Ivan Basso’s wildcard team EOLO-Kometa.
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The New Zealand road champion was returning to his team bus, disappointed with his result in the tough stage, when he noticed his Jumbo-Visma teammate Edoardo Affini still working his way up the Zoncolan. With a jacket on and a towel around his neck, Bennett turned around to thank Affini for his work as he finished the steep climb.
“Shout out to the big dog Edoardo Affini for carrying the breakaway all day yesterday,” Bennett wrote in a post on Instagram on Sunday.”Gutted not to pull it off in the end, there just wasn’t much left in the legs after that start. I will have nightmares of 200km full steam into a headwind for the rest of my life.”
Carrying the breakaway
24-year-old Affini had put in some hard efforts in the breakaway, driving the pace and attempting to set Bennett up for victory. Once the group hit the lower slopes of the Zoncolan, the Italian cyclist fell off the back of the group, completely spent.
“Unfortunately I didn’t have the legs to compete for the stage victory,” Bennett said. “It was a really tough stage. We went full throttle from the start and there was a lot of headwind. We had to fight for every second to stay ahead. Edoardo was really strong and he deserves all the credits because he made the difference on the flat. As a result, I didn’t have the power anymore at the beginning of the Zoncolan.”
Photographer Jered Gruber shared a photo of the pair climbing together. “My real highlight of today was watching [Bennett] descend back to the bus after the finish – only to come back into view moments later,” said Gruber in his post. “He turned around and started riding back up the Zoncolan with his teammate, [Affini]. I don’t know what was said, but anyone who turns around and rides back up that thing for even one second to share some words with a teammate is a hero in my book.”
View this post on Instagram
Though Bennett did join his teammate on the climb, he made an edit to his Instagram post a few days later to clarify that he did not ride the Zoncalon twice. “I saw a lot of people thought I rode the Zoncalon twice,” he posted. “I could hardly do it once so I only pedalled a few hundred meters with Edo to thank him and apologize for not winning…”
