Ben Swift at the 2011 Tour de Romandie |
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 65 kg (140 lb; 10.2 st) | ||
| Team information | |||
| Current team | Team Sky | ||
| Discipline | Track & road | ||
| Role | Rider | ||
| Rider type | Sprinter | ||
| Amateur team(s) | |||
| 1999–2000 2007–2008 Autumn 2007 |
Ashfield RC Mossley CRT Scunthorpe Poly CC Kinesis Recycling.co.uk-SIS 100% Me Team 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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| Infobox last updated on 21 September 2011 |
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Benjamin (Ben) Swift (born 5 November 1987) is an English professional track and road racing cyclist[1] who currently rides for Team Sky.
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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.
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.
After the championships he signed a two year professional contract with the new Russian Katusha team.[2]
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 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.'"[3]
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.[4] 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.[5] Swift was selected for the Tour de France ahead of Greg Henderson,[6] and finished 6th on Stage 15.[7]