Ben Swift

Swift at the 2011 Tour de Romandie.

Personal information

Full name

Benjamin Swift

Nickname

Swifty

Born

5 November 1987
Rotherham, England, United Kingdom

Height

1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)

Weight

69 kg (152 lb; 10.9 st)

Team information

Current team

Team Sky

Discipline

Track and road

Role

Rider

Rider type

Sprinter

Amateur team(s)

1999–?

Ashfield RC

Mossley CRT

Scunthorpe Poly CC

?–2000

Kinesis

2007–2008

Recycling.co.uk

Autumn 2007

100% Me

2007

Barloworld (stagiaire)

Professional team(s)

2009

Team Katusha

2010–

Team Sky

Major wins

Road

Stage races

Tour de Picardie (2010)
Track: Scratch Race World Championships (2012); European Under-23 Team Pursuit Championships (2007)

Medal record

Track cycling
Competitor for Great Britain
World Championships
Gold	2012 Melbourne	Scratch
Silver	2010 Ballerup	Team Pursuit
Silver	2012 Melbourne	Points race
Silver	2012 Melbourne	Madison

Infobox last updated on
12 April 2014

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.

Biography

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

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 where he finished fourth in the under 23 race.

Katusha

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

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.

Swift (leading) at the 2011 Tour de Romandie, where he won the fifth stage.

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.

In March 2014, Swift achieved one of his biggest results to date by finishing third in Milan – San Remo.^[11] In April 2015, Swift crashed out of the newly created Tour de Yorkshire, injuring his shoulder.^[12]