The average of the WorldTour peloton is getting younger and younger but the older, wiser riders still play a vital role. And some don’t want to think about retirement.
The reason? They are having too much fun.
That’s the case of Ben Swift, who at 35 and in a contract year with Ineos Grenadiers doesn’t want to bow out at the end of the season.
During the UAE Tour Swift was juggling multiple roles including working for GC leader Luke Plapp, giving Elia Viviani a hand in the sprints, and acting as a mentor for the young Ineos Grenadiers riders.
Despite his workload, he is getting too much job satisfaction to think about retirement.
“I’m still loving it to be honest, like I said to my family, if you’re willing to keep going and you’re still capable, why stop?” Swift tells Cyclingnews.
“If I was really getting my head kicked in and not enjoying it, that’d be different. But you can’t just have a team full of younger, inexperienced guys, you also need people who’ve been around a bit, like me.
“Maybe I’m not developing anymore as a rider. But I am still moving forward, and with these new training techniques and the way everything is getting more professional, I think you can keep going. And in my case, I think I will, at least up until I’m 37. I’m still up for it.”
One knock-on effect of the younger generation coming through so fast is the mentoring role is arguably more important than ever before.
As Swift points out, there have been a lot of jumping to wrong-headed conclusions about what the role actually implies.
“People get confused with the terminology of mentorship, it’s all not about dictating and ‘do this’ and ‘do that,’ even if sometimes that’s necessary because younger riders are not going to know everything,” he explains.
“It’s more about leading by example, showing the way that we race as Grenadiers, and keeping those habits up. And me just being me, with my level as a professional, that helps me do it too.”
Swift had mentors of his own when he joined Team Sky back in 2010.
“I had guys like Matt Hayman and Bernie Eisel looking after me without anybody saying anything,” Swift says.
“So while some progression comes naturally, it’s more about passing my experience on in that way, too.”
Mentorship may thus be more a case of being there when needed rather than of delivering long lectures after stages, and Swift pointed to Luke Plapp as an example of a rider who has made impressive progress on his…
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