It may have started earlier, but it came to a head in the middle of the night in the middle of London in the middle of last November, when former Tour de France green jersey winner Sam Bennett woke up with a weird sensation in his chest. His heart rate was unusually high for somebody who had been asleep a few moments earlier, let alone for a professional athlete with a resting heart rate in the low 40s. Accustomed to noticing every sensation in his body from a lifetime of training it, resting it, fuelling it and cajoling it, Sam knew something was off.

Source: Irish Independent January 22, 2026 14:29 UTC