Great Britain riders back Ben Swift for World Championship glory tomorrow

Ben Swift goes into tomorrow’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships at Ponferrada as Great Britain’s protected rider – and will have some top notch super-domestiques to support him including Team Sky colleagues Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, in a team captained by Garmin-Sharp’s David Millar.

Swift undertook a recce of the course, comprising 14 laps of an 18.2km circuit that includes two climbs, the Alto de Montearenas and Alto de Compostilla. The former is 5.1km at an average gradient of 3.5 per cent, while the latter is just 1.1km in length but averages 6.6 per cent and is followed by a sharp descent to the finish, potentially inviting late attacks.

While the total ascent on each lap is 306 metres, cumulatively there will be 4,284 metres of climbing throughout the race, and while many expect a bunch sprint, the riders themselves see it as more unpredictable,  something that Swift, who has just re-signed with Team Sky, acknowledged on his blog this week.

“It could make for a strange race and it’s definitely not straightforward, the profile and the circuit allows a variety of options for race strategy and with 14 laps to complete it’s also very hard,” the 26-year-old from Rotherham said.

“There are teams there that will not want to bring it to any sort of sprint, which means it will be hard for a long time and for me it’s going to be about trying to survive the climbs as best I can, but we have a great team with a lot of cards to play and I am very much looking forward to it,” he added.

When Mark Cavendish won the rainbow jersey in Copenhagen in 2011, Great Britain controlled the race to keep the break in check, as they did – ultimately in vain – for most of the Olympic road race in 2012.

With countries such as Australia, who have the pre-race favourite in the shape of Simon Gerrans, looking to avoid a sprint, Great Britain may look again to take charge of the front of the peloton, as suggested in a blog post for BBC Sport by Geraint Thomas.

The Commonwealth champion said that the course suits him, “and if it was back in June, I'd be going for it.” But at the end of a long season, Thomas, whose preparation was disrupted by a recent training crash in Nice, added: “I am purely there to do a job for Ben Swift.”

He went on: “I'll be staying with Swifty, to help him as his domestique. If he needs anything - like a bottle, food, raincoat, or new wheel after a puncture - I'll be helping him out.

“Given the early weather forecast is for stormy conditions, my role will also be to keep him sheltered from the wind as much as I can.”

Acknowledging he’d be unlikely to finish the race, Thomas continued: “Once my race is over, it will be over to Luke Rowe to help out and by the time he's done, the race should be into the final 30km or so and then it will be for Chris Froome and Pete Kennaugh to be active.

“The Worlds has been a big focus for Swift and he has the best chance within the team with the way the course is. He has got to hang in there to reach the finish because it is a long race but we are not putting all our eggs in one basket.

“Pete and Froomey can follow moves, while we have the young Yates twins, Adam and Simon, who are both good climbers and having a phenomenal first season. It's a strong team,” he concluded.

Froome, runner-up in the Vuelta to Alberto Contador earlier this month, also highlighted that he would be playing a supporting role in a race that isn’t best suited to his own abilities.

It’s a very open race,” he told Sky Sports News. “It could end in a sprint, it could be a breakaway. We have got a lot of confidence in Ben Swift. We have got a really competitive team and I think Swifty is in really good form and he is certainly up for it.

“Helping out is the least I can do after all the work the guys put in for me,” Froome went on. “I’m happy to go there and do what is required from me on the day.”

“One-day racing is always a bit of a lottery,” he continued. “I’m yet to get a big result in a one-day race, but if the right course came around and it was a really hilly circuit, it is something I could attack and go for. I’m quietly hoping that the Rio course [for the 2016 Olympic Games] would be a bit like that.”

Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford is temporarily back at the helm of the national team at Ponferrada, and Froome added: “Everyone would join me in saying it’s a pleasure to have Dave B back with British Cycling for the world championships.

“Given all of his experience and given how much he has been able to achieve over the last few years through British Cycling – even this week with Wiggo in the TT – it can only be a good thing and hopefully we can set something up in the road race.”

The race marks the final professional outing after 17 years in the peloton for David Millar, who will perform the same role of road captain as he did when Cavendish won the world championship three years ago.

The 36-year-old rode his final race for Garmin-Sharp at the Vuelta, picking up a hand injury and cracked rib on Stage 15 that he insists won’t unduly trouble him tomorrow, and said that it seemed right that his final race should be for Great Britain, rather than a professional team.

“It just feels right,” he told the Telegraph’s Tom Cary at the team hotel in Leon. “These are people I have been through thick and thin with over many years, since I was a junior. Even the hotel feels right. It wouldn’t be right if it was a luxury hotel. This is a nice reminder of what it is actually like.”

The full British line-up for the race is Swift, Froome, Thomas, Millar, Kennaugh, Adam Yates, Simon Yates, Luke Rowe and Steve Cummings.

Besides Gerrans, whose team mate Michael Matthews represents a potential option for Australia other names being singled out as possible world champions come tomorrow afternoon include Germany’s John Degenkolb, although he is recovering from a crash at the Vuelta, Peter Sagan of Slovakia, Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara, and Alejandro Valverde of host nation, Spain.