Ben Swift outduels Fred Wright to win men's British road race

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Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers) defended his British national title, winning the men’s elite road race ahead of Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) after a ferocious final sprint on Michaelgate.

The chief animator of the race, Swift first attacked as early as the third lap, which though initially unsuccessful, left him in prime position to force a split on the third ascent of Michaelgate. This breakaway, in a slightly different constitution to its original form, made its way to the finish.

Behind, Wright had to settle for second place, and first place in the U23 category, while a late turn of speed by Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) ensured that he took the bronze medal.

“I’m over the moon,” Swift said at the finish. “I’ve become used to wearing this jersey. Unfortunately we didn’t get to race last year so I got another year for free and hopefully today I justified that extra year. It was an incredible day. I think my form…I’ve had a bit of an up-and-down year. I’ve had some real highlights - I had my second child, Harry, but in terms of personal results it just didn’t go that well at the start of the year. It started to come together now and to finish it off like this. I’m really happy.

“In nationals you have to race from the front. I first went away with Ben Turner on lap three and I thought it would be a long day. I came back but as soon as you keep moving off the front, we had a really nice group with six others early doors. The guys were riding a bit too hard. We knew that Dan Bigham and Harry Tanfield were really strong but they put them out that back and it was like ‘ease off and use them as much as you can’. Harry was incredible today, he was absolutely flying and definitely kept the groups away," continued Swift.

“It was always going to be difficult with just two of us, but luckily I’ve worked with Ethan [Hayter] quite a lot this year - I’ve seen how talented he is, what a year he’s had and what an outstanding career he’s going to have in the future. It was nice to keep this one of his shoulders - I know he had the other two. Having a teammate like Ethan who is by far the strongest guy in the race and my experience, we worked well together. 

"It was just riding from the front and once I knew that Ethan was coming across at the end, I could play that card and say I’m not going to work because Ethan’s coming. I knew that Fred was at the side of me and we were toe-to-toe. It was just first to that corner and luckily I got it.”

How it unfolded

The opening lap was marked by a series of probing accelerations rather than attacks as each rider sought to conserve his energy while maintaining position towards the front of the peloton.

A small crash on the approach to the first ascent of Michaelgate underscored the importance of positioning but the peloton tackled the climb at a largely sedate pace, except for an attack by Lewis Askey (Equipe Cycliste Continentale Groupama-FDJ).

He was later joined by a group of riders including Dan Bigham (Ribble Weldtide Pro Cycling) but their endeavours initially only succeeded in stringing out the peloton. Bigham’s second attack, in which he was joined by Sam Watson (Team Inspired), broke the elastic and this duo built up an advantage of a minute.

They remained out front while, at the beginning of the third lap, Ben Swift and Ben Turner (TRINITY Racing) broke away too and dangled between the peloton and front group. At the back of the peloton, meanwhile, Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-QuickStep) had an unfortunately-timed mechanical just before Michaelgate and found himself out of position for the climb.

On the third ascent of Michaelgate, Swift and Turner were caught, but Swift continued to set a high pace to force the creation of a small group containing Jake Stewart (Groupama-FDJ), Harry Tanfield (Qhubeka-NextHash), Dan McLay (Arkea-Samsic). They bridged across to Bigham and Watson, forming a sextet at the front of the race.

Behind them, the peloton fractured twice on the next two laps and, though none of the pre-race favourites seemed to be caught out, these two groups came back together again. Only Michaelgate seemed able split the race and, through the avenue of cheers and cowbells, Hayter floated away from the peloton, latching onto the breakaway with a languid ease. 

Askey, Wright and Connor Swift (Arkea-Samsic) rode across more conventionally, measuring their effort over a couple of kilometres. James Shaw (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) and Sean Flynn (SEG Racing Academy) also eventually joined the front after a lap-and-a-half long chase, while Bigham and Stewart were both dropped.

This breakaway continued without much incident until the ninth ascent of Michaelgate when Connor Swift accelerated. He was countered by McLay, his teammate, over the top of the climb, who escaped with Wright, Tanfield and Ben Swift in what became the race-winning move. 

By the time the front group entered the 11th lap of the race, about 38km from the finish, the gap had ballooned to 50 seconds, marooning Hayter and Connor Swift in the group behind, unable to counter the move of their respective teammates.

This group was then joined by Alexandar Richardson (Alpecin-Fenix) and this configuration remained until the penultimate ascent of Michaelgate when the pace in the front group proved too high for McLay. In the second group, Hayter tentatively attacked on the climb too, dropping everyone except Askey and this pair began to close in on the front of the race. 

Knowing that he would be unable to match Wright and Swift in the sprint, Tanfield repeatedly attacked on the final lap but was closely marked. As the leading trio entered the bottom of the final climb, they slowed, playing cat-and-mouse with one another, while behind Hayter and Askey thundered ever closer.

On the final uphill sprint Wright and Swift charged up Michaelgate side-by-side, until Swift finally edged ahead and took the title.