‘Mindset shift’ – Harry Sweeny ditches domestique duties to step up onto Tour Down Under overall podium

Harry Sweeny (EF Education-Easypost) doesn’t often find himself in the position of having to call the shots as team leader at a race, but after the expectation-exceeding performance he delivered at the Tour Down Under, that could well change.

“If you told me a month ago I’d be on the GC podium, it would be a surprise,” said Sweeny, but on Sunday, he was stepping up to the stage in Stirling at the Australian WorldTour opener to celebrate third overall behind a dominant winner Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla).

“I had the team’s blessing and the whole team’s support, especially today, we used every single man that we had and I can’t thank them enough. I mean, I had special legs, but the boys have been amazing this week. And I know what usually goes into riding for a leader like this, because I do it day in day out most of the year,” said Sweeny before going up onto the stage.

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“It’s actually a bit difficult telling the boys, ‘Where are you? You need to come. You need to do this.’ It is not usually the style that I have. I’m usually just doing it for someone else, so it’s a bit of a mindset shift, but it’s something that I’m learning to do. And everything’s a learning curve in cycling, especially in the WorldTour.”

It’s a learning curve that could well continue for the rider who came third in a Tour de France stage in 2021 and now has his first WorldTour overall podium result to his name, and a team manager in Jonathan Vaughters who is urging him to step up more.

“JV has been on the phone all the time telling me I need to be a bit more of an asshole and ask for leadership more,” Sweeny said with a grin. “So yeah, I’m going to try and do that and see how it goes, I guess.”

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