Sam Bennett will be one of two Irish protected riders, along with Ben Healy, in Sunday's World Championship road race.

Bennett, who is currently competing in the Tour de Pollogne with trade team Bora-Hansgrohe, is in fine form with two wins at the Sibiu Tour in Romania. On his first day in Poland, he finished fourth despite making two mistakes in a group sprint on the first stage.

Bennett will have two chances to show his form in Pollogne, on stages 4 and 7, before heading to the World Championships road race in Glasgow on August 6.

The 2024 transfer window officially opens on August 1, and the 32-year-old Bennett, whose contract expires in December, is favored to move on from Bora-Hansgrohe for the second time in his career after being left out of the Tour de France team for the second consecutive year.

But despite rumors of multiple moves, Bennett says nothing is set in stone for next year. No news at the moment," Bennett told Cycling News before the third stage of the Tour de Pollogne, "but I'm sure I'll be back in the same place next year.

Regarding the world championships, Bennett says Ireland's road racing strategy is likely to be "to have two riders, myself and Giro d'Italia stage winner Ben Healy, as co-leaders."

"Ben can see what he can do on the climbs and I can wait and see what happens in the main group," Bennett said.

"It's going to be a very hard race and a very technical course with a lot of corners. So we have to go in order."

As for Pologna, Bennett admitted that his line was fluffy in the opening group sprint on Saturday at the rainy Poznan motor circuit.

"I stuck to the front with 300 meters to go in a slight headwind. It was disappointing because I didn't know how I was going to do."

"I just came back from the high altitude and I had two wins in Sibiu. That result doesn't show anything. I did two things that day that I said I shouldn't do: I went too far forward and too fast."

Bennett, who was not selected for the Tour de France, will miss the 2023 Grand Tour altogether in his end-of-season program and will instead race the Deutschland Tour and Tour of Britain.

"First though is the World Championships," he noted, saying the Tour de Pollogne is his last chance to hone his form before next Sunday. And if he can move up from fourth place in Poznan on Saturday to the end of the race in Krakow, which traditionally ends in a group sprint, so much the better.