Yorkshireman who missed out on 2012 Olympics aims to triumph in front of British home crowd in Surrey Classic
A year ago, when the London Olympics were in full swing, Ben Swift was watching from the sidelines after narrowly missing the cut for the team pursuit. Twelve months on, the Yorkshire sprinter will be among the British favourites for Sunday's Prudential RideLondon Surrey Classic, on a hilly course that should suit him, and with his form finally on the up after a crash ruined his start to the year.
Swift faces a hectic journey back from the Tour of Poland, which finishes on Saturday, in order to be at the start of the 140-mile event, but he feels it will be worth it. "It's about time we had a big one-day race in Britain. It's on the Olympic course and the quality of the field shows how Britain is stepping up – people are starting to recognise us as a cycling nation, so they want to come over and race here. I wanted to do the London race as soon as I knew it was on although it will be a dash to get back. I just want to be in front of that home crowd."
Swift was a contender for the most unfortunate cyclist in the British squad for 2012. He was the sixth rider in the team pursuit squad, with five selected for the Games; he took two silver and one gold in the three distance events on the track at the 2012 world championships but there are no distance events in the Games and his decision to focus on the track ruled him out of contention for the road race.
"It's definitely a course for me," he said of the RideLondon circuit, which includes one climb of Box Hill preceded by three ascents of Leith Hill. "It's a hilly route but on a European level it's not that hilly. I would expect it to be a large bunch sprint or a decent sized breakaway group." In a bunch sprint, the big favourite will be Peter Sagan, the double Tour de France points champion and a specialist in sprints at the end of hilly races but Swift believes that Sky have two options with himself and Chris Sutton.
Team Sky's plan at the start of the season was that Swift, a regular winner of group sprints in races that are too hilly for pure sprinters such as Mark Cavendish, would target smaller stage races where he had shone in the past. In 2011 he landed five wins, while even with the disruption of the Games in 2012, he still managed a brace of stage wins in the Tour of Poland. A serious crash at the Majorca Challenge in February disrupted all his early season, and left him largely off his bike for three months.
"It's been a disastrous year," he said, as to date his best result is a second place in a stage in the Bayern Rundfahrt back in June. "I'm still feeling the effects of the crash. I was injured everywhere but it was a knee that caused me the most trouble, a swelling under the kneecap that never quite went. Majorca was my first race after a shoulder operation, and that's still giving me pain as well."
Alongside Swift and Sagan, other contenders for Sunday's race, which starts in the Olympic Park and finishes in the Mall, are the Milan-San Remo winner Gerald Ciolek and the British veteran David Millar, who is set to retire in 2014, while the French sprinter Arnaud Demare and the Australian Matt Goss – winner of Milan-San Remo in 2011 – should also figure if the race comes down to a bunch sprint. Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 days ago.
A year ago, when the London Olympics were in full swing, Ben Swift was watching from the sidelines after narrowly missing the cut for the team pursuit. Twelve months on, the Yorkshire sprinter will be among the British favourites for Sunday's Prudential RideLondon Surrey Classic, on a hilly course that should suit him, and with his form finally on the up after a crash ruined his start to the year.
Swift faces a hectic journey back from the Tour of Poland, which finishes on Saturday, in order to be at the start of the 140-mile event, but he feels it will be worth it. "It's about time we had a big one-day race in Britain. It's on the Olympic course and the quality of the field shows how Britain is stepping up – people are starting to recognise us as a cycling nation, so they want to come over and race here. I wanted to do the London race as soon as I knew it was on although it will be a dash to get back. I just want to be in front of that home crowd."
Swift was a contender for the most unfortunate cyclist in the British squad for 2012. He was the sixth rider in the team pursuit squad, with five selected for the Games; he took two silver and one gold in the three distance events on the track at the 2012 world championships but there are no distance events in the Games and his decision to focus on the track ruled him out of contention for the road race.
"It's definitely a course for me," he said of the RideLondon circuit, which includes one climb of Box Hill preceded by three ascents of Leith Hill. "It's a hilly route but on a European level it's not that hilly. I would expect it to be a large bunch sprint or a decent sized breakaway group." In a bunch sprint, the big favourite will be Peter Sagan, the double Tour de France points champion and a specialist in sprints at the end of hilly races but Swift believes that Sky have two options with himself and Chris Sutton.
Team Sky's plan at the start of the season was that Swift, a regular winner of group sprints in races that are too hilly for pure sprinters such as Mark Cavendish, would target smaller stage races where he had shone in the past. In 2011 he landed five wins, while even with the disruption of the Games in 2012, he still managed a brace of stage wins in the Tour of Poland. A serious crash at the Majorca Challenge in February disrupted all his early season, and left him largely off his bike for three months.
"It's been a disastrous year," he said, as to date his best result is a second place in a stage in the Bayern Rundfahrt back in June. "I'm still feeling the effects of the crash. I was injured everywhere but it was a knee that caused me the most trouble, a swelling under the kneecap that never quite went. Majorca was my first race after a shoulder operation, and that's still giving me pain as well."
Alongside Swift and Sagan, other contenders for Sunday's race, which starts in the Olympic Park and finishes in the Mall, are the Milan-San Remo winner Gerald Ciolek and the British veteran David Millar, who is set to retire in 2014, while the French sprinter Arnaud Demare and the Australian Matt Goss – winner of Milan-San Remo in 2011 – should also figure if the race comes down to a bunch sprint. Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 days ago.