The future’s bright, the future’s Swift
Posted May 26, 2011
British cycling has a record of turning out top riders through its well established academy system; Ben Swift is one such rider to have made the successful transition from U23 Academy to the top level of road cycling.
Swift is a northern lad, South Yorkshire born and bred. As someone who’s ridden around the Yorkshire area, I know it’s the perfect anecdote for poor form and this might go some way to explaining Swift’s impressive road cycling pedigree.
Joining Team Katusha in 2009 as a neo-pro (first year professional), Swift managed 3 top 10 placings at the Giro D’Italia as well as a stage win at the Tour of Britain, not bad for a 21 year old. Since then he’s joined the high budget Team Sky outfit and continued to build on those solid results. 2011 has been Swift’s most successful season to date, taking two stages in the Tour Down Under, a stage in the Tour of Romandie, Castilla y Leon and Tour of California, as well as helping team mates such as Greg Henderson and CJ Sutton.
Together with Adam Blythe and Mark Cavendish, Swift makes up the next generation of young British sprinters. Current GB champion Geraint Thomas is proving one of the best lead out boys in business as well, and can turn a sprint himself if needed.
So what’s next for ‘Swifty’? Well we’re big fans. We reckon that Swift might just end up challenging for his first Grand Tour stage win either later this year or next. Swift has shown that he can climb too, taking the King of the Mountains classification at the Tour of Britain while still only a trainee at the Barloworld Pro Team. It’s a rare thing for sprinters to be able to climb well; Spain’s Oscar Freire and Italian Alessandro Petacchi are both sprinters who can cling to the coat tails of groups throughout lumpy stage races, and as a consequence often get many more chances at stage wins than their sprint rivals, this is where we see Swift truly excelling.
Watching Swift outsprint the likes of Peter Sagan, Thor Hushovd and Freire in Calfironia really reflected on how much this young rider has come on in his short three year career. Time will tell where Swift’s talents will take him, but for now we’re content to sit back, grab a nice cold beer, and watch the sprinting duels unfold in Europe with GB riders well and truly to the fore!
Happy Cycling :-)
photo via Marvin Johnson
