Perhaps we shouldn't overcomplicate things when it comes to signing sprinters. At the very least, the team's hiring policy is straightforward whenever a finisher slot opens up on the Detunink-Quickstep roster.

Sam Bennett, a late independent from Beulah Hansgrohe, arrives on a team that has already won 10 group sprints in the last five Tour de France, thanks to four sprinters with different characteristics. Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel, Fernando Gaviria, and Elia Viviani all won and left.

Deceuninck-QuickStep director Sportif Tom Steele believes that Bennett offers the team something a little different than the fast men of the past.

"I think the thing about Sam is that he's not vulnerable to hard courses," Steele said. 'That's something a little new. If Cavendish was really good, he would be able to climb pretty well, but Sam's on a completely different level. He can really climb, and he can pass hard climbs if he has to.

But there is a difference between observing sprinters on other teams and working with them on a daily basis. Steele's and Detunink-Quickstep already have an idea of Bennett's physical abilities, but the early weeks of the season, starting with the Tour Down Under, are also a time to assess how best to use Bennett.

"He can win on the flat, he can win on a little bit of a climb, he can win on a little bit of a climb, he can win on a little bit of a climb.

"Getting a consistent leadout and having a full team working for him is also a little new for him. We need to get consistency and then see how he does. Is he more likely to win if he has a leadout where he is alone with 200m or 250m to go, or should we give him a little more room to accelerate from the back ......"

Unlike in soccer, where the striker may typically adapt to the team's tactics, the newly signed sprinter has rather more say in how his new team should deliver him to the finish line. Over the years, the Detunink-Quickstep leadout train has adapted well to Cavendish's explosiveness and Kittel's power.

Shane Archibald follows Bennett from Beulah Hansgrohe to help make a smooth transition. The Irishman will be accompanied by Iljo Keisse and the team's master lead-out man, Michal Morkov, when he makes his debut on the Dečuninck Quickstep at the Tour Down Under.

"Usually, the sprinter is the one who has to win, so we match him. But his demands have to be logical." We have a lot of lead-out men who have already worked with sprinters for several years. Then we go step by step and fine-tune it."

"And of course, Sam will find his own way and deal with the pressure and the need to win. There is only one position that matters for a sprinter. But I'm sure he'll manage." "

After taking his 13th and final win of 2019 in a long, long sprint in Oviedo at the Vuelta a España, Bennett noted that the VO2max test had previously suggested he did not have the physiology of a pure sprinter.

"But I wanted to be a sprinter, so maybe I forced myself to be something I'm not," Bennett said.

Then again, bicycle racing does not take place in a vacuum. The young Cavendish was once nearly denied admission to the British Cycling Academy for his performance on a stationary bike, and Steele's has seen enough of Bennett's pacing to recognize his suitability as a sprinter.

"He still has the acceleration needed to be a top sprinter. 'He still has the acceleration needed to be a top sprinter. He still possesses the acceleration needed to be a top sprinter.

Like Bora-Hansgrohe with Pascal Ackermann and Peter Sagan, Bennett will have to share the calendar with two other sprinters. Jacobsen, who beat Bennett in Madrid on the final day of the Vuelta, will be the sprinter for Dečuninck-Quick Step in the Giro d'Italia, while Bennett will have free rein in the Tour de France.

After gaining experience in Mapei in the 1990s, Stiels was sent to the 1998 Tour with Jan Svorada. Steele's won the first stage in Dublin, while Svorada won the next day in Cork.

"There was a lot of respect between the two of us, but we did a lot of sprints and said, 'You're on the left, I'm on the right.' It wasn't an ideal situation, and now I think it's a difficult scenario to repeat," Steele said. [Now we have three top sprinters, and we are dealing with it by keeping their value and giving them a program that will help them win races. I think this year's Tour is pretty hard for sprinters, but not for guys like Sam.