'The toughest year of my life' - George Bennett on adversity and renewed ambition with NSN

Heading into his fifteenth year as a professional and his third with the newly rebranded NSN Cycling Team, Bennett is looking to put behind him what he has described as the toughest year of his life, following the death of his mother.

“It’s been the toughest year of my life. The season sort of came second, you know, like I kind of did what I could, but I spent a lot of time in New Zealand and a lot of trips home,” Bennett tells Domestique. 

“I got back to Europe, and I did what I could and did some races, and then after mum passed away, I came back to Europe and did a good block ahead of the Vuelta and then got into good shape. Then I crashed pretty hard on stage 1 of the Tour of Poland, and then crashed a couple times during the first stage of the Vuelta, which kept me out of the race.”

Bennett abandoned the Vuelta on stage 8, and that would be the final race day of his season, as Israel-Premier Tech were excluded from the end-of-season Italian one-day races.

“I got going again for the Italian Classics, and then obviously we weren’t at those. In the end, it was just one write-off to the next, but in the scheme of things, I wasn’t sitting about moping about the bad season,” explained Bennett.

What helped Bennett get through a really difficult period was the support he received from his teammates and the staff in the squad. “It helps being in the team I am in. We’re just a bunch of mates that hang out together,” said Bennett. 

“I think also having Sam [Bewley] as my director, I was the groomsman at his wedding, you know? I’m surrounded by really caring people, so I think having experience has helped deal with a lot of it, but also being in this environment was a really comforting thing.”

Bennett detailed how the team put his family ahead of racing, something the Kiwi believes isn’t an all too common thing in the sport, and something he was appreciative of. “A great example was the day before the Liège-Bastogne-Liège, literally the night before we were all ready to race, and I got a phone call from my sister who said, 'You need to come home quickly.' And the team didn't even hesitate about racing Liège.”

“We were just about to go to the pre-race meeting, and I just travelled to the airport, and they said not to worry about it. It’s actually a bizarrely rare thing in cycling when you're an asset and teams need points.”

Since the Vuelta, the team has rebranded from its Israeli identity ahead of the 2026 season, with Canadian company Premier Tech also ending its sponsorship of the team. There was plenty of uncertainty surrounding what the future of the team would look like. 

In the end, the Spanish sports and entertainment company NSN (Never Say Never) filled the void of sponsorship, with the team operating under a Swiss licence from January onwards. “Yeah, it's massive. Like we just had a couple of weeks' camp in Denia, and it was just such a good time, with everyone there. Ahead of all the new arrivals, everyone was excited, all the new equipment. We’ve just stepped up in all those areas," said Bennett when asked about the arrival of the new sponsors.

Part of the buzz regarding the new sponsorship is the involvement of NSN co-founder, the iconic Spanish footballer Andrés Iniesta. Bennett shared an anecdote which illustrates the excitement around the team’s new link to one of the most celebrated footballers of the 21st century.

Just days before his call with Domestique, Bennett was clipped by a car whilst out training. Luckily, he avoided injury, but his bike didn’t make it out in one piece, which left him scrambling to try and find his way home.

“I was really lucky, I got away fine, but it could have been a lot worse,” said Bennett. “I was at the bottom of the road down in Spain, trying to hitchhike my way home, and a guy picked me up. The guy asked which team I rode for, and when I said NSN, he was just fizzing and was like, ‘Oh wow, Iniesta.’ The vibe that brings suddenly is awesome,” said Bennett.

In the closing weeks of the 2025 season, it was also confirmed that Bennett had renewed his contract with the team for 2026, and the Kiwi highlighted the team environment and ambition as some of the key factors behind his decision to extend.

“I'm loving the environment, but I also think it’s the set-up. When I went to Jumbo [Visma], in my first year, we won six races. But, I remember with Merijn Zeeman there was a plan, and you could just see that there were all these things in place like ‘how are we going to become a super team’, and I really see that here,” explained Bennett.

“When I compare to Visma, of course, the team’s advanced since I left them, but I think there’s nothing that they’re doing that we’re not doing. The difference is that they have Jonas [Vingegaard] and Wout [van Aert].”

Beyond the new arrivals, Bennett highlighted that the team already has many talented riders, some of whom have plenty more gears to find in 2026. “We’re making the team more attractive for some big talent. And, we do have some crazy talent already that people probably don't give enough credit to just because they've had some tough years or things. I think of Stevie [Williams], you know? Then you’ve got Corbin [Strong], all these guys and Biniam [Girmay] arriving.”

“Even the new equipment, the testing we’ve done has got everyone excited, that we’ve got another step to go to, and the opportunities now are big. I would say it’s not just the equipment, but also the addition of a lot of new processes for performance.”

Ultimately, that team environment, which helped Bennett through a difficult time and a brotherly bond, also played a key role. “It’s just like you’re excited to go to a race because you know your mates are there and you all can buy in, in terms of ‘I’m going to fight harder to help this guy, because he’s a good bloke.’ I think that goes a long way.”

Before joining his current team, Bennett spent seven seasons at Visma and two at UAE, the two biggest powerhouses in the peloton during the 2020s so far and as of 2025.

After a record-breaking season, which saw UAE Team Emirates-XRG win 97 times during 2025, as well as the simple fact that they have Tadej Pogačar in their ranks, it’s important that teams, including NSN, look to new methods in order to achieve success according to Bennett.

“The thing is, when you’re up against Tadej, realistically, nobody is going to beat him, so then you have to quantify what success is, and then you have to start looking at other areas,” said Bennett. “Because for so long it's just been like, ‘who won the Tour de France’, and that's just going to remain Pogačar for the next, however long he wants to do it for. But then you start having a quantified in different ways, like, how can we be successful?” 

Bennett highlighted teams such as Lidl-Trek and Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe for their current approach to competing against a powerhouse like UAE, and how other teams can follow suit.

“Look at Lidl-Trek. They’ve decided, ‘We’re going to be everywhere. We’re gonna have a guy in the Classics, [Jonathan] Milan in the sprints.’ Teams are having to diversify a bit, because it doesn’t matter what team Tadej rides for, he has a monopoly on the Tour de France in the overall standings.”

“Other teams are starting to challenge, they’re kind of trying to think outside the box and maybe even they look at Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, they're trying to build like, right, ‘let's have three big GC stars and see if we can maybe dislodge something that way’. But it's very hard to break the chokehold on cycling when you do have a guy that is just simply so much better than everybody.”

Bennett raced alongside Pogačar for two seasons at UAE from 2022 until 2023, sharing 31 race days with the current World Champion, and credited the fact that the Slovenian operates on a level of his own compared to everyone else.

“I mean, having seen that first hand, he [Pogačar] really is a step up, and yes, I think I think other teams' approaches are going to have to focus more on diversification, to achieve what we would classify as success.”

One rider with whom Bennett built up a strong rapport during his two years at the team is Matthew Riccitello. The 23-year-old American climber illustrated his GC potential when he finished 4th at the Tour de l’Avenir in 2023, the best result for the United States at the prestigious under-23 race since Adrien Costa finished 3rd in 2016.

Bennett’s has experience of racing for the general classification at Grand Tours, with 8th at the Giro d’Italia in 2018, and 10th at the Vuelta a España in 2016, his best results, so naturally, Riccitello could learn plenty from the Kiwi, with Bennett sharing more race days with Riccitello than with any other rider since his switch from UAE, 85 in total.

He showed plenty of glimpses of his potential beforehand, but the most recent Vuelta a España delivered the stamp of approval that Riccitello can be a bona fide GC contender at the biggest races. Riccitello ultimately finished 5th overall and won the youth classification, something which doesn’t surprise Bennett.

“He's always had a seriously impressive engine, but he struggled a little bit with getting to the front. But the team at the Vuelta was just perfect. It was this great mix of guys that could look after him and then help him survive those first hectic weeks into the final mountains,” explained Bennett.

“It was so good to see him show what he could do, because he’s a bloody nice kid, you know, and I respect his work ethic, he lives cycling… It’s great to see his hard work rewarded,” added Bennett.

Naturally, there would be many teams circling like sharks in an attempt to secure the long-term future of a rider who looks to have even more potential to build upon. In the end, it was the increasingly ambitious Decathlon CMA CGM who emerged as the preferred destination for the American rider for 2026 and beyond. 

“It’s a shame he’s leaving. I hope he gets the same support there as he received with us because it can be hard working for a guy sometimes who has a few issues in the bunch, as it involves a lot more work going back and forth, but people were happy to do it for him because he’s a nice kid, and we believed in him. I hope that at Decathlon, they see the same thing in him and he can continue the path that he is on.”

Looking ahead, Bennett is in preparation mode for the upcoming season, and with the departure of multiple riders with experience and pedigree, such as Pascal Ackermann, Simon Clarke, Chris Froome, Jakob Fuglsang, and Michael Woods, the wisdom of a rider like Bennett, who has raced 17 Grand Tours and 12 monuments, becomes more significant.

“Yeah, we had some, let’s say, maturer riders definitely, like Jakob [Fuglsang], Clarkey [Simon Clarke], we’re losing off the bike [retiring after the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race], Froomey [Chris Froome]. I do think people automatically associate age with maturity, but there are a lot of thirty-year-olds out there that know what they are doing.”

"There’s definitely a sense of helping guys out in terms of having been around forever and even things off the bike… I think half of the battle with cycling is just keeping your head on,” said the 35-year-old.

Bennett confirmed that he is set to kick off his new season with the Santos Tour Down Under, which he described as “the coolest race” due to the "homely" feeling it gives him, and his love of the heat.

The rest of his first block of racing is somewhat up in the air, with Bennett stating how there are plenty of “earn your spot” type races.

“I’ll be at a couple of stage races, definitely Catalunya, and maybe one before that and then often the Ardennes and maybe Romandie, depending on how I come out of that block.”

“Then I’ll take a rest, and when I say a rest, you basically only have four, five days because before you know it, it’s altitude camp heading into Dauphiné and another camp heading into the Tour, so it’s pretty full on, but it’s probably one of the most exciting schedules I've had in a long time. But yeah, a lot of those are like earn your spot kind of races as well.”

Though he is edging towards the twilight, Bennett still has a lot more to give, and after the most difficult year of his life, has renewed ambitions ahead of the new season.