After ending his 2013 campaign early to undergo surgery to fix a painful shoulder injury, Team Sky’s Ben Swift is back to his best in 2014. Following a strong spring and early summer, he took a break from racing, and then returned to competition at the beginning of this month with a few goals for the late-season calendar in mind. With one of those goals, Plouay’s GP Ouest-France, only two days away, he talked to VeloHuman about his season so far, his current form, and his expectations for the next few weeks of racing.

Swift started the year off very well; among several strong results, he contested a sprint finish after nearly 300 kilometers to land a podium place in Milano-Sanremo, and took a win at the Vuelta al País Vasco in a stage with some serious climbing challenges before the finish. With those results, Swift showed that he had not just recovered, but that he was feeling quite good and continuing to develop an already versatile skillset. For Swift, the success was directly attributable to his newly repaired shoulder, which has also given him a major morale boost.

“Last year and the years before, having that injury, you just can’t get the training that you need,” he explained to VH. “Morale’s not good and every time it hurts . . . you just can’t get the work done and you end up just getting yourself into a hole. So we made the call at the end of last year to finish really early and just get it fixed, and give myself a lot of time, and it seems to have worked. And once you get that confidence back really, I think that was another big thing, to prove not only to myself, but to everybody, that I could be at that level again, where I showed that I could be. So it was good to get that confidence back and that morale back.”

Swift put in more race mileage in May and June, riding in the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de Suisse and then landing a runner-up performance at the British National Championship Road Race. After Nationals, he took some time off to rest and recover for a few late-season goals. His return since then has had ups and downs: crashes marred his first race back, the Tour de Pologne, but days after leaving Poland he landed a 2nd-place finish in the RideLondon Classic. Last weekend’s Vattenfall Cyclassics in Hamburg was his next target, but Swift wasn’t able to put in the performance he’d hoped for. Despite that, he is currently optimistic about his upcoming objectives.

“Tour of Poland . . . obviously that didn’t go too well, two crashes and a puncture. But I came good again in the RideLondon. And then I had a really heavy training block after RideLondon and before Hamburg. I was obviously expecting a lot more for myself in Hamburg, but I’m hoping it was just a bad day,” he said. “I haven’t had too many bad days this year. That was one of the first ones where I’ve been a protected rider and just had nothing. It was like, do one effort and that was it, I’m fatigued. So hopefully it was just a bit of training fatigue. I had a nice week in Nice this week with my soigneur, so hopefully in Plouay we can turn things around. But in the long term I’m not too worried. It would be nice to get a good result in Plouay and show that the legs are coming back but if not, I’ll just keep going easy and try to make the most out of Tour of Britain.”

Sunday’s GP Ouest-France in Plouay does have the sort of profile that would seem to suit the talents of Swift and his teammates, which has him feeling good about the opportunity to try for a top result.

“We’ve got Edvald [Boasson Hagen] starting to improve a hell of a lot now. He’s come into some really good form, so I can see it being myself and Edvald being sort of joint leaders for it. They’re quite interesting races these two, Hamburg and Plouay. You’ve got a lot of people that are quite fatigued from the Tour and some that are starting to wind down for the season, so you’ve got a real mix of riders. It’s just about making the most of these opportunities, and I think that with Edvald and the rest of the guys, we’ve got a strong team and I think there’s a lot of motivation inside the team,” he said.

Though the startlist is not yet set in stone, Swift identified Simon Gerrans and Alexander Kristoff as likely rivals and riders worth watching at the GP Ouest-France. After his trip to Plouay, Swift has his sights set on the Tour of Britain, a race in which he’s already taken a stage victory (back in 2009).

“Hopefuly I’ll go into it fresh. I’ll be chasing stage wins, that’s for sure, I’ll try and make it at least one stage win there, and then it’s the final push for the World Championships,” he said.

Hilly but with a flat finish, the profile for the World Championship Road Race in Ponferrada, Spain certainly looks like one that might fit Swift’s skillset. Having done some recon of the course already, he does see opportunity, but acknowledges that it will be a hard race to predict.

“It’s quite an interesting [parcours]. I think it’s open to a lot of scenarios really. It just depends on the race, how it develops as it goes along. I don’t think the climbs are that hard on their own but when they’re combined, then towards the end of the race it’s going to be a bit of a different story. So it’s going to be interesting, and it’s all about saving as much energy as possible, I reckon,” he said.

He is particularly excited about the growing number of British riders who could find this type of challenge to their liking.

“If I saw this sort of profile in a stage race, I’d be really excited for it. It’s something that, I think, as a nation, we haven’t really had any out-and-out riders for it. But obviously this year, we’ve had the Yateses [twins Adam and Simon Yates] step up really well. Pete Kennaugh, it’s a perfect course for him. I think we’ll have a lot of cards to play,” Swift said.

The World Championships may yet be a few weeks off, but with 229 kilometers of racing and plenty of climbs along the way, Sunday’s GP Ouest-France will offer an indication of where Swift is in terms of form. If he’s able to return to return to the level that saw him landing consistently impressive results in the spring and early summer, he’ll have a few good opportunities to add to his palmarès before the season comes to a close.

-Dane Cash

Photo by Marc.