Swift Ready to Support Cav

Olympic hopeful, Ben Swift, has changed his plans for this summer, by opting to drop the track, in order to focus on supporting Mark Cavendish in the road race. 

The 24-year old was part of the Great British team pursuit team that went to the World Championships, in April. However, Swift then saw himself dropped from the team for Melbourne, encouraging the Yorkshireman the switch his focus for this summer.

Rather than battling it out for a place in the four-man, four-kilometre team pursuit, Swift will instead focus on challenging for a place in the five-man team for the 250km road race, with Cavendish looking to win gold for Britain, and Swift hoping to assist him

Swift made the decision following talks with British Cycling head coach, Shaun Sutton, road head coach, Rod Ellingworth, and men’s endurance chief, Dan Hunt. He admitted that, while it wasn’t final, the focus would now be on the road race in the run-in to this summer’s event in London

"I think I'm going to step away from the track now and try to pursue a place in the road team", Swift said. "I had a talk with my coaches, and made the call. That's going to be my goal now, to get into that road team.

"The road race will be harder to get selected and, while I’d never say never, at the minute, it's the road.” Swift will not feature in the Tour de France odds, despite his switch to road racing.