'We'll defend the jersey with all the things we've bought' – Harry Sweeny's return to Tour de France comes with a brand new job description

4 years on from his debut participation within the Tour de France, Australian Harry Sweeny may hardly have made a extra satisfying return to biking’s greatest bike race, this time going through the brand new problem of defending the yellow jersey.

Racing the Tour for the primary time since 2021, Sweeny, partially, introduced the brand new job on himself. He was within the thick of the motion within the first week, and certainly one of 4 EF Schooling-EasyPost riders that made it into the crunch stage 10 breakaway by the Massif Central.

That transfer concluded with Ben Healy changing into Eire’s first Tour de France chief since Stephen Roche received the race outright in 1987, and Sweeny’s contribution earned big reward from staff boss Jonathan Vaughters.

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The previous professional described Sweeny because the MVP of the 29-strong transfer that went clear, and estimated that the 27-year-old Australian was accountable for round two minutes of the hole they’d created – a niche that finally enabled Healy to maneuver into the race chief’s yellow jersey. Or as Healy himself put it extra succinctly he was “a truck”.

“It has been superior up to now,” Sweeny informed Cyclingnews throughout the remaining day. “To be sincere, I believe I landed on my toes in my first Tour as effectively, it has been 4 lengthy years with out being right here so I had further motivation to come back and do effectively.

“Then with Ben right here, it was the proper storm yesterday and the plan got here collectively completely. I actually like working with Ben and we had the chance to do one thing actually particular. Significantly if you appeared again and there was all the time one much less individual in your wheel!”

Sweeny mentioned that he had been largely accountable for the stage 10 breakaway forming. After going excessive of a troublesome early climb, the place there have been already just a few riders forward, he opted to push on and see what occurred. For a couple of minutes, trying behind, he may see gaps forming and riders who have been already struggling.

“From there on I went as laborious as I may. It was troublesome to get cooperation within the group going so in the long run I did a number of double turns, however it paid off.

“From the start, although, we weren’t going to let a gaggle go with out Ben in it. In order that was our solely aim for the day.”

Earlier than stage 10 the staff’s motivation had been boosted, he mentioned, by watching an outdated video of the 1995 Tour de France Bastille Day mass assault by the Spanish staff ONCE, spearheaded by French star Laurent Jalabert. Now with the yellow jersey on the EF staff bus initially of stage 11, the subsequent step might be defending the yellow-hued advantages of that collective effort within the coming days.

“I got here right here with the aim of going for a stage win myself, and to be sincere the primary week I did not have the legs I wished,” Sweeny mentioned.

“I even had Ben using for me on one stage, as a result of I used to be a shot for the yellow jersey after I would been within the first echelon on stage 1, however I did not have that actual snap in my legs and it was fairly disappointing. So I shifted again to what I do know finest, serving to the leaders deep into the race.”

“I believe we’ll defend the jersey with all the things we have. So to have my very own ambition at this level is a bit laborious. I am going to simply do all the things I can to assist Ben.”

Sweeny mentioned there was nothing particular to his feeling slightly bit off within the first week, merely that within the opening elements of an extended race, he is inclined to wrestle barely.

Extra particularly, tapering for a Grand Tour or stage race just isn’t one thing that comes simply to him, he mentioned. On the plus facet, that signifies that he is usually in nice form after 10 days or two weeks. On this case, that was simply when EF Schooling-EasyPost have been in search of their riders to get into the breakaway of the day with Healy, so it was really a case of the biking planets aligning for the Australian.

Being in the proper place to benefit from that rising kind was all the time a part of the equation, too. Sweeny defined that his return to the Tour de France in 2025 had been on the playing cards way back to final autumn.

That was as a result of he had performed some good work for the staff within the Vuelta a España final yr with Richard Carapaz and, in consequence, it had been roughly determined the place he’d be in July 2025 – albeit after a really race-heavy spring that included all of the Flemish and Ardennes Classics.

“I had per week’s vacation afterwards, then it was straight over to altitude camp,” he recounted. “I wanted to have a neater buildup to the Tour to ensure I wasn’t going to utterly prepare dinner myself.

“But it surely was nice with the staff as a result of I had the arrogance that I might be right here, I wasn’t rushed into making an attempt to peak simply to show I ought to be within the staff. So they’d a number of religion in me.”

Whereas he did a number of work for Carapaz within the Vuelta final yr, the scenario of defending a frontrunner’s jersey in a Grand Tour is a brand new one for him. His three seasons at Lotto, the place he raced between 2021 and 2023, have been as he places it, “very totally different” given he spent a number of time working in levels for former Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan. With EF-EasyPost, his job description lists different priorities.

“One among my larger belongings is that I can climb rather well, in addition to doing all of the positioning. So it is an attention-grabbing change defending a GC lead, notably within the Tour.”

No matter occurs over the subsequent 12 days, the Tour has been a roaring success for EF-EasyPost and Sweeny has been receiving a number of congratulatory messages on that account, each from dwelling in Australia and from different Australians within the race, too.

“Even from different groups, Aussies are all the time completely satisfied to see different Aussies do effectively, and it has been good to get that,” he confirmed.

“It has been overwhelming with the followers and the environment has been loopy, too.

“It has been an attention-grabbing Tour. I do not know if I’ve essentially loved this primary week extra as a result of I’m going higher when I’ve extra fatigue or extra workload, in order that’s made issues actually annoying.

“However I am by no means going to complain about strolling into the primary relaxation day with the yellow jersey within the staff, both!”

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