Ben Swift backs Ineos Grenadiers leadership duo of Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart to claim surprise Giro d'Italia win

The 35-year-old former British road race champion from Rotherham, who insists he is getting better with age, will play the role of road captain for a team that has two challengers for the pink jersey in 2020 race winner Tao Geoghegan Hart and 2018 Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas.

Neither man is favourite, with Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel who did the Vuelta Espana and world championship road race double last year, and Slovenia’s three-time Grand Tour winner Primoz Roglic, the men to beat.

But Swift is confident experience and cohesion will help carry an Ineos rider to the top step of the podium in Rome in three weeks’ time.

"If you look at the startlist you’ve got two clear clear favourites in Primoz and Evenepoel but what we bring is a complete strength in depth,” says Swift.

"I’d go as far as saying we’ve got the strongest team overall in this race in terms of our climbing support.

"But then if you look beyond that climbing support you’ve got myself, Salvatore Puccio and Filippo Ganna who is a beast in his own right.

“This group has been part of a project ever since we sat down in December and worked out who was doing what races.

"There was a list of 12 riders that got narrowed down pretty quickly but the main core of this group has been racing together and training together for a long time.

"I did two and a half weeks training with the guys in the Sierra Nevada and then we went into the Tour of the Alps, so we’ve had a good four weeks on the road together before the Giro and what I took away from the was the bond we’ve all created. It’s quite easy in this environment to create little rivalries between people that could weaken the team but from what I’ve seen so far in the Tour of Alps where we were spending two hours together at the dinner table after already spending three weeks together, says a lot about how we’re pulling together.

"Obviously legs in the race makes a difference but if we’ve got such a united team and one that gets on well, it puts us in a very good place.

“It’s a massive advantage to have two clear favourites and leaders and they can ride off one another."

An imposing Giro route – which covers a total of 3,489 kilometres and includes 51,400 metres of climbing – begins with an 19.6km time-trial from Fossacesia Marina to Ortona on Saturday, the first of three time-trials that cover a total of 73km over the three weeks.

There are also summit finishes on the Crans Montana, Monte Bondone, Val di Zoldo and Tre Cime di Lavaredo, plus seven stages of more than 200 kilometres and four others that come within a whisker, promising a gruelling three weeks for those intending to go all the way to Rome.

For Swift, who is in contract year at Ineos but revelling in a leadership role and hopeful of a few more years in the saddle, this is a fifth Giro d’Italia.

"My main role is road captain," he told The Yorkshire Post on the eve of the race. “I’ll be speaking a lot with the directeur-sportifs, just generally taking charge on the road, looking after the guys and making sure our team leaders are the best protected they can be.

"And then personally just going as long as I can. It’s a long race and you need everybody to pull in the same direction and be fully committed.

“I’m a different rider to what I used to be, I have different goals and ambitions. I’ve come into my own now, I’ve found a new lease of life. I’m having a good end to me career, which is nice to take away.

"I’d always take an opportunity for myself if it arose, but that’s the secondary goal, the first is to try and win that pink jersey for the team.”