Harry Sweeny (EF Education-Easypost) doesn't often find himself in the position of having to call the shots as team leader at a race, but after the expectation-exceeding performance he delivered at the Tour Down Under, that could well change.
"If you told me a month ago I’d be on the GC podium, it would be a surprise," said Sweeny, but on Sunday, he was stepping up to the stage in Stirling at the Australian WorldTour opener to celebrate third overall behind a dominant winner Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla).
"The week leading in, I felt really special, and I had some really good legs, and it was the first time in a long time that I’ve asked to ride for myself," said Sweeny.
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It was clear from early on that the 27-year-old Australian had stepped into a different realm, delivering a more than respectable 14th in the prologue and then quickly shooting up the results table to fourth on stage 2 when he helped pull together a chase group of eight that went out in pursuit of the flying duo from UAE Team Emirates, Vine and Jhonatan Narváez.
From then he didn't falter, coping with the intense heat likely with the help of some seriously hot days of training in Victoria before the race. Then, when Narváez crashed on stage 4, all of a sudden, that fourth became third.
The standings behind him were tight, with Marco Brenner (Tudor Pro Cycling) just two seconds behind, but Sweeny crossed the final line, after a tough day of racing in Stirling, with the leading group of 29 and secured the podium spot.
"I had the team's blessing and the whole team's support, especially today, we used every single man that we had and I can't thank them enough. I mean, I had special legs, but the boys have been amazing this week. And I know what usually goes into riding for a leader like this, because I do it day in day out most of the year," said Sweeny before going up onto the stage.
"It's actually a bit difficult telling the boys, 'Where are you? You need to come. You need to do this.' It is not usually the style that I have. I'm usually just doing it for someone else, so it's a bit of a mindset shift, but it's something that I'm learning to do. And everything's a learning curve in cycling, especially in the WorldTour."
It's a learning curve that could well continue for the rider who came third in a Tour de France stage in 2021 and now has his first WorldTour overall podium result to his name, and a team manager in Jonathan Vaughters who is urging him to step up more.
"JV has been on the phone all the time telling me I need to be a bit more of an asshole and ask for leadership more," Sweeny said with a grin. "So yeah, I'm going to try and do that and see how it goes, I guess."
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