Ben Swift endured another near miss on The Mall as Luxembourg’s Jean-Pierre Drucker beat the 27-year-old Briton in a four-way sprint to claim the RideLondon-Surrey Classic in blazing sunshine on Sunday.
Team Sky’s lead rider, who was pipped on the line by a fellow Sheffield-born rider Adam Blythe in horrendous conditions last year, joined an eight-man breakaway with 30km to go which whittled down to four by the flamme rouge, but Drucker slipstreamed him until attacking in the final 200m. The young Dutchman Mike Teunissen chased hard but ran out of road to finish second, with Swift third.
Much of the buildup had surrounded Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish but neither could add to their previous successes on the streets of London. The Manxman admitted before the start at Horse Guards Parade that he had been feeling unwell in the lead up to the 200km race, a lingering sickness from the Tour de France interrupting his preparation, and he and Wiggins finished in the peloton a few minutes back.
An early breakaway quintet dominated the first half of the race, which included Britons Erick Rowsell and Pete Williams, the latter keeping pace despite a terrible run of bad luck, suffering multiple punctures and mechanical failures.
But with 55km remaining the Etixx-led peloton swarmed around their early escapees as they finished three loops through Dorking and made for the zig-zags of Box Hill.
At the foot the dangerous former world champion Philippe Gilbert immediately attacked but by the top he had been reeled in by a stubborn peloton, and after several more failed breaks a group of eight made one stick. Swift joined up with the lead group as the already stretched peloton, drained by the high tempo up Box Hill, surrendered with 30km to go.
Wary of any sprint, Sep Vanmarcke chose to power clear with 10km remaining but the LottoNL rider was clearly grimacing and was caught in the final 3km by Swift, Drucker and Vanmarcke’s team-mate, Teunissen.
The quartet swung left at Trafalgar Square and passed under Admiralty Arch together, the black shirt of Team Sky leading them on to The Mall, but Drucker sat patiently on Swift’s wheel before a perfectly timed assault left him frustrated again.
