Chat: Talking to Connor Swift & Mike Northey

On the final days of the Tour of Britain, we spoke to Connor Swift and Mike Northey of Madison Genesis about the race

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Chat: Talking to Connor Swift & Mike Northey

Pic: SWPix.com

Not long after the start of stage 6 of the Tour of Britain, appearing on social media was a picture of Connor Swift attacking and I was keen to get the story on what happened.

For the last few years I have missed not being there after Zero kilometre and seeing the chaos as riders attack one after the other especially as those making the moves this year were riders like Connor Swift who have had such good years in the domestic racing scene.

So on stage 7, the final one for me on the race, I caught up with Connor at the start and asked about the photo. He explained “I had Matt Holmes beside me and he said give it a bash like he’d done. There were a lot of World Tour teams at the front and I presumed they were going shut the road down so I attacked.”

“It didn’t work and there were quite a few other attacks and the final move stuck at around 20km so that was Madison Genesis represented again which was good”.

I was then curious as to how he managed to keep himself in the mix after making that first effort? Connor explained “I did the first effort and when that came back, sat in the wheels, making tiny efforts to stay in the top 15 and then as soon as you see something dangerous up the road like the conti teams you know want to go, that is when you have to go before the road is shut down.”
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Connor then continued to give an insight into the breakaway that was on television all stage. “James (Shaw) was the guy who helped control the break, telling us when to ease up and when to push on. He has that experience so he controlled the break all day and it was pretty smooth and we were playing with the peloton who were keeping us on a tight leash”.

“Then with about 30k to go that is when we went full gas and got caught with three to four k to go. We had been going full gas for 20k or so and then we hit that 7k mark and the effort caught up with my leg. I tried to do as much as I could in that last bit to keep the momentum going because the last thing you want is people jumping around. It’s about keeping that momentum going and you’ll end up being quicker that way.”

For Connor, it had been his first Tour of Britain and the highlight he says was making the moves. “The first stage and getting in the break and going for KoM points was a highlight. It would have been nice to go for a jersey but getting in a few breaks has been good.” And what has he learned about the level … “it’s a tough race. As soon as you go through that 50k to go mark, you need to have had your caffeine gels and hang on! On the drops and get to the finish line”.

Finally, whilst it was Connor’s first Tour of Britain, it was the last for his DS on the race, Mike Northey. He revealed the Tour of Britain was his last race and by now he’ll be back home in New Zealand with his young family.

Pic:SWPix.com

He said “I’m looking forward to starting a new chapter and settling a bit after 15 years of travel. I will miss the bike racing and being with the boys and the group we have; it’s been a second family.”

Looking back at the Tour of Britain with Mike, he explained “we came into this knowing how the race was going to unfold so for us to get something out of the race, we were looking to go up the road and chance a break staying away because you never know on the Tour of Britain with six man teams.”

“They can easily stay away as they have before so for Connor in his first Tour to go up the road twice is pretty impressive. Even yesterday (stage 6) when he was caught, he hung on to the end.”

Mike Northey with Erick Rowsell

So while Mike hangs up the reigns at Madison Genesis, young Connor Swift has a great future ahead of him and we expect to see him in an even stronger Madison Genesis line up in 2018.2016_ShuttVeloRapideAdvert

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