Swift Itching to Return to Racing

Story posted June 23, 2009
By Larry Hickmott (website profile)

When I was at the Junior Road Race National Series event on Sunday (June 21), I am sure there are many of them in the race who have lofty ambitions of being a road professional in Europe and doing the big races we watch on the television. A rider who has achieved that ambition is Ben Swift.

For a first year professional, Rotherham’s Ben Swift has been a revelation. A third place on stage 2 of the Giro behind two of the worlds best (Petacchi and Cavendish) and four podiums in major pro races this year are the facts that show this young man is yet another British rider who has a strong future as a professional bike rider and may well follow in the footsteps of other British pros who have gone on to become stars of the pro peloton.

Ben is a superb all rounder on the road and track. On the former, he can sprint with the best and climb a bit too which gives him the opportunity to win in a bunch kick or from a break. His place in the peloton now is all a far cry from his days as a stagaire with Barloworld where he was winning the King of the Mountains prize in the Tour of Britain but then had to return to the Under 23 races for another season when a contract was not forthcoming.

That was a blessing for the youngster though as more victories came his way in 2008 and now, as a neo pro, having been on the podium in 2009 four times in races such as Nokere Koerse (2nd), Vuelta al País Vasco (two stages, 2nd and 3rd) and to top it all off, the Giro, the over whelming desire of the rider is to get that first professional win with his team Katusha.
 
This year, Ben has raced 47 times already and finished 45 of those including the three week Grand Tour, the Giro (Tour of Italy). It was after the Giro that Ben took a break from a racing and returned home to Britain. He spent a week with Geraint Thomas who like Ben, has finished a Grand Tour or three in his short racing career so far. Ben then went back to his roots in Rotherham to have some problem wisdom teeth removed.

There, on Sunday June 21, he was the guest at his parents club’s, Dinnington RC, road race, the Tom Simpson Junior road race where he presented the prizes. Talking to the former Olympic Academy rider at the event, he explained that since returning from the Giro, he’s had a lot of rest and only just returned to getting in lots of kilometres in the last week before having those troublesome wisdom teeth removed.

“I was planning on having them out anyway but I managed to get in to have them done quickly. Having it done was something I wanted to put off until the winter but they have been giving me grief in races so I took the opportunity to have that done now.”

With stitches in his mouth from the dentistry work, and the general feeling of not being 100 per cent after the visit to the dentist, Ben was playing down his chances in next weekend’s British Road Race championships especially as he has had no real racing since the Giro.

“I felt good on the bike after the rest” he explained “and I am still intending to ride the nationals and will see how it goes. I was supposed to do a midweek race in Belgium this week but now because of the visit to the dentist that wasn’t possible”.

Speaking about the Road Race Championships in Abergavenny this weekend (link*****) and what many are saying is the best field ever assembled for a British championship on the road, Ben admits it’s going to be a great race to do and a lot of fun. Although he hasn’t been racing, Ben is back home in South Yorkshire and the chain gang there is notorious for being a hard one at times to ride with.

With his wounds from the dentist healing fast, and the British championship event only a 100 miles, Ben while playing down his chances of victory, says that the distance will suit him better having had a long break than it would have had had the race been 120 miles or longer.

Looking further ahead, he says he isn’t doing the Tour de France and that his team has not been selected for the Vuelta so he’s unsure of his full programme between now and the end of the season but the major goal for him is not so much what race he does but to get that first victory under his belt.

“I have the confidence after the first part of the season and that should make it easier for me to go for it” he says.  Asked, after a break of three weeks whether he’s got itchy feet to get back into the pro peloton again, Ben replied, “Yeah, I have. When I took my break it was the right time to do it.”

Three of Rotherham's finiest, Dean Downing, Ben Swift and Russell Downing.

“Originally, I wanted to try and keep going and do the Tour of Switzerland and have the break after the British champs but I spoke to the team in the last week of the Giro and they said take a break because you have been going since the first of Feb. Having had that break, I am now definitely eager to get going again, get over this problem and get training properly.” 

The only thing Ben knows he has coming up besides the British champs is  the Tour of Austria, a seven day stage race which he admitted will be a good way to get back into the racing as it’s a good hard event.

When asked will he get selected for the ‘A’ team in Katusha for future races, Ben replies
“I hope so. I was in the B or C team at the start of the year (when he joined the team) and now I’d like to do a few races with Robbie (McEwen).”

“We have kept in regular contact through out the season where he’s been giving me tips and it would have been great to have done the Giro with Robbie. Now I’d like to get stuck in with the lead outs for him and use what I have learnt in the Giro. Having been given the role of sprinter there, I know now what it is like at that level and where I need to be.” 

Mark Cavendish and Ben Swift sprinting against each other in the Tour of Britain, 2007.

The Sprint
Watching a big bunch kick on TV, there is some argy bargy going on but as ever with TV, it’s probably a whole lot more exciting being in the mix as Ben was in the Tour of Italy and other races this year.

Chatting to Ben about them he says “It is pretty amazing how well drilled Columbia are. We got quite good at doing this sort of thing in the under 23’s (with the GB team)  but everything in the pro ranks is just a whole step up and then the same again in a Grand Tour. To see how dialled in they are and committed to that one guy (Mark Cavendish) is pretty amazing.”

“In those sprints, everyone is trying to get on Cav’s wheel because they know he is the fastest in the world and it can get quite scary fighting for that wheel.”

“In this year’s Giro, there were only four or five stages that potentially could end in a  sprint finish and the whole day on a stage like that was like single file and trying to recover was impossible.  So you come to the finish really tired -- I have never ridden that long in single file before!”

“For the stage into Florence, the average speed was 47k an hour and constantly one or two abreast all day and then at the end, you’re having to jump in and out of corners trying to get to the front and then when you get to the front where it is another 10k an hour faster, you’re trying to jump in the sprint.”

“I’m using 53x11 in the sprints at the moment as I’m not strong enough yet to push anything bigger. On that stage in the Giro (stage 2 where he was 3rd), I was on Cav’s wheel and then Alessandro Petacchi.came up and took me off his wheel but I wasn’t too bothered because it was Petacchi but after that there was some head butting going on to keep position!”

Although Ben has yet to work for his Katusha teammate Robbie McEwen in a bunch kick, he rates the Aussie very highly saying “Robbie has tended in the past to do the sprints on his own and is probably the worlds best at jumping on and off wheels. Cav though has the perfect team and the two of them are probably the two best sprinters in the world and when they have a clear run at each other it is an exciting thing to see.”

And one final word on Mark Cavendish and why he is so special – “Just the pure acceleration” Ben says. “When he goes, it’s incredible because he’s going forward when everyone else is already at maximum while he just keeps pulling away. It’s like he has another gear really.”

Good luck to Ben on Sunday.