Ben Swift played a prominent role in today's RideLondon Classic when he finished off strong teamwork from the Sky team by taking second in the sprint fromt a 5-rider group. The Brit proved great versatility by taking the result in a race of attrition instead of in a traditional bunch sprint.

Ben Swift finished a close second at the RideLondon – Surrey Classic after a strong performance from Team Sky.

The team rode hard in difficult conditions and took the 193-kilometre race on in a bid to set up Swift for the famous sprint on The Mall.

The Yorkshireman was ready when called upon and successfully infiltrated the race’s winning move as an elite group of 11 riders headed into the closing stages.

That pack was whittled down to five during a tense final run-in and it was Adam Blythe (NFTO) who jumped early in the sprint and held on to the finish.

Swift looked to chase down his compatriot but had to settle for second place on the day, while Julian Alaphilippe (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step) rounded out the podium.

“It was really hard – especially with the weather it was like we’d done a mountain bike race,” Swift said after the race.

“It was tough trying to follow (Philippe) Gilbert on the little steep climbs. We knew it was coming so we knew what we had in store. It was a war of attrition out there today.

“I’ve got to thank the team 100% today. They were absolutely brilliant. To have (Ian) Stannard back after such a long period doing the turns that he did – then (Ian) Boswell and Nathan Earle. Unfortunately Luke Rowe punctured at a really bad time so it was quite disappointing to lose him there. Once we were down to a couple of riders some other teams really took it up.

“I was weary of Adam in the finish. I knew that he was perhaps the quickest rider. We got ourselves into the perfect position. I knew that he was following me and as soon as I looked forwards that’s when he went. We just held the gap to the line. I’m super happy for Adam. I’ve been racing with him since we were five or six years old and it’s nice to share the podium with him.”