George Bennett of New Zealand riding for Team Lotto NL-Jumbo in action during stage five of the 2017 Le Tour de France. Photo/Getty Images
And in the category of damning with faint praise ... fallen Tour de France hero Lance Armstrong has tipped Kiwi George Bennett as a future winner of the great cycle race.
After his 10th-place finish at last year's Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain) and victory in the 2017 Tour
of California, Bennett has continued to impress in the French classic over the past two weeks, currently sitting in the top 10, with the tough Pyrenees mountains looming.
But Armstrong, who was stripped of seven Tour titles when he admitted to using performance enhancing drugs, has claimed a small amount of credit for the rise of Bennett, who rode on his Trek Livestrong development team in 2011.
Not sure whether endorsement from one of sport's most notorious doping cheats is a good thing, but on his podcast "Stages", the Texan billed Bennett, 27, as a "sneaky" performer in this year's Tour.
"In any bike race, you have the obvious stories," said Armstrong. "You have the favourites, the leader, the charming stars, but then there's always the sneaky person and George Bennett is the sneaky one.
