Ben Swift
 Swift at the 2011 Tour de Romandie. |
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Benjamin Swift | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Swifty | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 5 November 1987 Rotherham, England, United Kingdom |
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| Height | 1.79 m (5 ft 10 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 69 kg (150 lb; 10.9 st) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current team | Team Sky | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Track & road | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Rider type | Sprinter | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Amateur team(s) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1999–2000 2007–2008 Autumn 2007 2007 |
Ashfield RC Mossley CRT Scunthorpe Poly CC Kinesis Recycling.co.uk 100% Me Barloworld (stagiaire) |
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| Professional team(s) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2009 2010– |
Team Katusha Team Sky |
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| Major wins | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Benjamin (Ben) Swift (born 5 November 1987) is an English professional track and road racing cyclist[1] who rides for Team Sky,[2] and has been with the team since 2010. Swift won the scratch race at the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.
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Biography [edit]
Swift was born in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, he began cycling with Mossley CRT aged 12. In 2003, he came second to fellow Olympian Steven Burke in the under 16 national scratch race championship. As a junior rider, Swift competed at the Junior Commonwealth Games, taking bronze in the points race, he won two national titles, the junior points race championship in 2004 followed by the junior scratch race in 2005. He also competed in the senior scratch race in 2005, demonstrating his ability by finishing third to take the bronze medal. Swift began competing internationally, winning several madison events. In 2012 he won the World Championship Men's Scratch Race, becoming Great Britain's first ever World Scratch Champion.
Professional career [edit]
He made his professional road debut in August 2007 joining Barloworld as a trainee during which time he won the King of the Mountains title in the Tour of Britain.
During 2008 he raced for the British Cycling development team and won his first UCI ranked race. He represented Great Britain in the 2008 Olympic Games road race and at the UCI Road World Championships were he finished fourth in the under 23 race.
Katusha [edit]
After the championships he signed a two year professional contract with the new Russian Team Katusha.[3]
In 2009 he was selected to ride the Giro d'Italia. Swift finished third in the stage 2 of the Giro d'Italia. He also won a stage of the Tour of Britain. Swift spoke with Cyclingnews.com in 2009, describing himself as "an allrounder, who can do well in the Classics and win stages. 'My weakness is in the time trial. I don't like doing them and I'm not really that good at them.'"[4]
Team Sky [edit]
Swift joined the newly formed British-based Team Sky in January 2010. His transfer to Sky from Team Katusha part way through his contract has been instrumental in the Union Cycliste Internationale considering new regulations for the transfer of riders between teams.[5] During his first season with Sky Swift's most significant result came at the Tour de Picardie, at which he won one stage, the general classification, the points classification and best young rider.
2011 saw Swift win his first stage of a UCI World Tour race, winning stage two of the Tour Down Under in Adelaide. Four days later he also won stage six. Swift won Stage 2 of the Tour of California, and took the lead of the race, after Stage 1 was abandoned due to adverse weather.[6] Swift was selected for the Tour de France ahead of Greg Henderson,[7] and finished 6th on Stage 15.[8]
In 2012 Swift focused on track cycling with a view to representing Great Britain in the 2012 Olympic Games. On 4 April, Swift won the Scratch Race at the World Championships to take the rainbow jersey. He finished second in the points race, and joined forces with Geraint Thomas to take silver in the madison.
Swift was scheduled to ride the Giro d'Italia, but was forced to withdraw after suffering a broken shoulder in a crash during a training ride the week before.[9] Although he failed to gain selection from the long list for the British Olympic team, he was picked for the Team Sky squad for the Tour of Poland, winning the second and fifth stages, as well as wearing that Tour's red-and-white points classification jersey [10] Swift was selected as Sky's sprinter at the 2012 Vuelta a España, and finished second on Stage 18.
Palmarès [edit]
- 2004
- 1st Points race Junior National Track Championships
- 2005
- 1st Scratch race Junior National Track Championships
- 1st Rotterdam Junior 2-day madison
- 1st Nights 1 & 2
- 1st Dortmund U23 3-day madison
- 2006
- 2nd National Team Pursuit Championships
- 2007
- 1st Team Pursuit, U-23 European Track Championships
- Giro delle Regioni
- 1st Final Stage
- 1st King of the Mountains
- 3rd Milan-Busseto
- 1st King of the Mountains, Tour of Britain
- 2008
- 1st Coppa della Pace
- 1st GP Coppa Romita
- 1st Stage 5 Giro Ciclistico Valle d'Aosta Mont Blanc
- 4th UCI World Under-23 Road Race Championships
- 2009
- 1st Stage 7 Tour of Britain[11]
- 2nd Nokere Koerse
- 2010
- 1st Overall Tour de Picardie
- 1st Stage 2
- 1st
Young rider classification - 1st
Points classification
- 2nd Team Pursuit World Track Championships
- 2011
- 1st Stage 5 Vuelta a Castilla y León
- 1st Stage 5 Tour de Romandie
- 1st Stage 2 Tour of California
- 3rd Overall Tour Down Under
- 1st Stages 2 & 6
- 2012
- World Track Championships
- 1st
Scratch race - 2nd Points race
- 2nd Madison (with Geraint Thomas)
- 1st
- Tour de Pologne
- 1st Stages 2 & 5
- 1st Points classification
References [edit]
- ^ "British Cycling Biography". British cycling.
- ^ "Sky Procycling (SKY) – GBR". UCI World Tour (Union Cycliste Internationale). Retrieved 13 January 2013.
- ^ Stephen Farrand (2008-09-26). "Swift Impresses in his Final Amateur Race at World Championships". Cycling Weekly.
- ^ Susan Westemeyer (2009-04-21). "A Swift start to his career". CyclingNews.
- ^ Shane Stokes (2010-01-04). "Swift set to move to Team Sky". CyclingNews.
- ^ "Swift wins delayed start to Tour of California". Reuters. 2011-05-17.
- ^ Nigel Wynn (2011-06-23). "Sky's Tour de France squad announced: Swift selected | Latest News". Cycling Weekly. Retrieved 2012-07-11.
- ^ by Simon_MacMichael on July 17, 2011 – 23:14 (2011-07-17). "Tour de France Stage 15 reaction: Cav says green jersey not won yet, Swift feeling better as race goes on | road.cc | Road cycling news, Bike reviews, Commuting, Leisure riding, Sportives and more". road.cc. Retrieved 2012-07-11.
- ^ Cycling (2012-05-04). "Giro d'Italia 2012: Ben Swift's training injury disrupts Team Sky's preparations but their focus remains". London: Telegraph. Retrieved 2012-07-11.
- ^ Cycling Weekly. "Ben Swift wins second stage of Tour of Poland". Retrieved 2012-07-11.
- ^ "The Tour of Britain 2009 – Results – Stage 7". 2009-09-18. Archived from the original on 2009-09-18. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
External links [edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ben Swift |
- Official website
- Ben Swift profile at Cycling Archives
- Ben Swift on Twitter
