Tag: Ben Swift

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Ben Swift Extends Contract with Sky

Ben Swift

Ben SwiftBen Swift has signed a new two-year contract with Team Sky, keeping him with the team until the end of 2016. The 26-year-old Yorkshireman has been a valued member of Team Sky since they began in 2010, achieving 11 victories and racing in five Grand Tours over his time with the team.

 

Swift made history when he secured the team’s first-ever stage race win at the 2010 Tour de Picardie, and WorldTour successes at the Tours of Romandie, Poland, Basque Country and Down Under have marked him out as one of the best sprinters in the sport. His third-placed finish at the 2014 Milan-San Remo also showcased his ability as a one-day rider and he will now look to continue that upward trajectory over the next two years.

 

Last month, team-mate and fellow Brit Geraint Thomas also signed a new two-year deal, committing the Olympic gold medallist and Tour de France winning team member to Team Sky until the end of the 2016 season.

 

Commenting on signing his new two-year deal, Ben Swift said: ‘I’ve been with Team Sky since the start and five years on it really does feel like home to me. To keep that relationship going was really important so I’m delighted to be staying for another two years. I already have one eye on next season and with this team I know I can deliver some good results.’

 

Details on Team Sky at TeamSky.com and follow Ben Swift in Twitter @swiftybswift

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Wiggins to Lead Sky at Tour of Britain

Sky Tour of BritainTeam Sky have announced that Sir Bradley Wiggins will lead Team Sky’s squad at the 2014 Tour of Britain, which begins in Liverpool on Sunday September 7. Wiggins returns to the Tour of Britain after winning the race in 2013 and this year he will line up alongside fellow British riders Ian Stannard and Ben Swift as part of a six-man squad. The full Team Sky squad for the 2014 Tour of Britain will be: Bradley Wiggins, Ian Stannard, Ben Swift, Bernhard Eisel, Sebastian Henaoa and David Lopez.

 

Wiggins comments on the event: ‘The Tour of Britain is a special race for me so to be returning as defending champion is a real honour. It’s always been a tough race but the support we receive from the fans is incredible, and it’s our home tour so I’ve always enjoyed racing it…. From the start of the year it’s always been a goal of mine to race to the Tour of Britain. The race is growing in stature year on year and it’s our chance to go there with a strong team and race in front of home fans to thank them for their support over the season.’

 

The 2014 Tour of Britain starts in Liverpool and finishes in London on Sunday September 14, taking in eight stages along the way. September 7 also sees Sky hosting the first ever Sky Ride Liverpool event, where cyclists of all ages and abilities are able to enjoy a fun day of cycling through a traffic-free route in the city centre, which is free for all to enter.

 

Further details on the Tour of Britain at tourofbritain.co.uk and on Sky Ride Liverpool at goskyride.com

 

Further information on Wiggins and Team Sky at teamsky.com

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A Great British Weekend at RideLondon

RideLondon

RideLondonThe Prudential RideLondon weekend, despite some dramatic weather, saw not only in excess of 20,000 amateur cyclists take on the Surrey 100 (making it the biggest sportive ever staged in the UK) but also incredible success for the British contingent in the professional events.

 

On Saturday Italy’s Giorgia Bronzini hit a turn of speed in the closing metres to beat Marianne Vos in the RideLondon Grand Prix – the 1.3mile lap race around St James’ Park – with Olympic silver medallist Lizzie Armitstead in third. An extraordinary seven of the top ten places in the event went to British riders with Eileen Roe and Olympic gold medallist Laura Trott finishing in fourth and fifth respectively.

 

British success continued on Sunday with the RideLondon Classic 100-mile Surrey to London race, which saw Adam Blythe win in a sprint finish ahead of Ben Swift. The final 30km witnessed the lead pack reduced from a dozen riders to just 5 in a highly tactical game that former road world champion Philippe Gilbert looked to already have in the bag on a number of occasions; but with the final turn into The Mall it was relative unknown Blythe who still had the legs to get to the line. Bradley Wiggins, making only his second competitive appearance in London since the 2012 Olympics, finished down in 30th place.

 

Further details and full results for Prudential RideLondon at prudentialridelondon.co.uk

 

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Armitstead Heads for RideLondon

RideLondon

RideLondonLizzie Armitstead, who took gold at the Commonwealth Games road race in Glasgow, is set for an appearance at this weekend’s Prudential RideLondon Grand Prix (Saturday August 9). She joins her Team England colleagues Laura Trott and Hannah Barnes on the start list for the race, which will be broadcast live on BBC2, and will also be competing against reigning world and Olympic champion Marianne Vos.

 

The domestic contingent will also be strongly represented, with British Circuit Race champion and Matrix Fitness GP Series winner Eileen Roe and Women’s Road Series champion Nicola Juniper set to compete. Multiple Paralympic gold medallist Dame Sarah Storey will lead her Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International team which will also include seventh place finisher in the Commonwealth Games road race and track world champion Katie Archibald, plus Lauren Creamer who won the Women’s Tour of Staffordshire at the weekend, the final round of the domestic Women’s Road Series.

 

Despite the no-show at RideLondon by Mark Cavendish following his Tour de France crash, the weekend will see many of the world’s elite male cyclists taking to the streets. Australian Mark Renshaw, Chris Sutton and Ben Swift are amongst those confirmed.

 

The Prudential RideLondon event, to give it it’s full name, is an annual two-day festival of cycling developed by the Mayor of London and his agencies as part of the legacy of the London 2012 Games.

 

Full details of RideLondon at prudentialridelondon.co.uk

 

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Mixed Results for Team Sky at Vuelta

Day two of the Vuelta a España has seen mixed results for Team Sky; Chris Froome, runner-up last year, only managed a 29th placing, saying: ‘Coming so soon after the start, this climb won’t decide who’s going to win the race but we’ll start to see who could lose it.’

 

Better news though for team-mate Ben Swift who finished third in the second stage in a sprint finish won by John Degenkolb of Argos-Shimano. Clearly delighted with what he regards as a breakthrough win in his first major tour the the young German commented, ‘A finish like that called for pure power, which is what suits my kind of racing, not just speed, and after team-mate Koen De Kort had dropped me off with 200 metres to go there was just me, Davis and Swift up there for the sprint… It’s great to get a win so soon for the team. We came here looking for just one victory and now we’ve got that in the bag the pressure is off. Maybe more will come after these next two mountainous stages.’

 

On the hilly second stage from Pamplona to Viana, which was run in temperatures soaring into the high 30s Celsius, the Spaniards Javier Aramendi and Javier Chacon and the Russian Mikhail Ignatyev went clear in the first hour. After Chacon dropped back with 30km to go, the overall contender Alberto Contador of Spain made a surprise dash at an intermediate sprint to snatch a two-second time bonus. ‘I thought I might as well try for it. It wasn’t too much effort and I was in a good position anyway,’ the leading Vuelta favourite said.

 

Spain’s Jonathan Castroviejo of the Movistar team remained the overall leader. Monday’s third stage will be the first summit finish of the race, on Mount Arrate in the Basque Country.

 

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ITV4 to Screen Vuelta a Espana Highlights

Our new favourite channel ITV4 is to broadcast the 2012 Vuelta a Espana for the first time. Following successful coverage of Bradley Wiggins’ historic victory in this year’s Tour de France ??ITV will broadcast daily highlights shows throughout the Vuelta as part of a new agreement with the ASO.

 

Beginning on Saturday August 18 and ending on Sunday September 9, the 67th Vuelta will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,300 kilometres.?? British interest in the race should include Chris Froome, fresh from winning the Bronze medal at the Olympics Time Trial and finishing second in the TdF, along with Ian Stannard, Adam Blythe, Ben Swift and Jeremy Hunt. ??Froome also finished second in last year’s Vuelta, with his Team Sky colleague Wiggins third.

 

Juan Jose Cobo won the 2011 race and will be back to defend his title in 2012. ??ITV4 will broadcast a 60-minute highlights programme from each race day, presented by Gary Imlach. ITV.com will also simulcast a highlights programme. ??ITV Director of Sport Niall Sloane said: ‘This has been an unprecedented year of success for British cycling, with Bradley Wiggins winning the Tour de France live on ITV. I’m delighted that we are able to offer free to air coverage of this year’s Vuelta a Espana.’

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Sky Ride High

Plenty of reasons for Team Sky to be celebrating today, not only does Bradley Wiggins go into Stage 11 of the Tour de France – 148km from Albertville to La Toussuire – Les Sybelles – wearing the yellow jersey for a British record-breaking fourth day (beating Boardman and Millar’s three), but elsewhere Sky’s Ben Swift finished yesterday’s Stage 2 of the Tour of Poland in first place.

 

Easily outpacing Liquigas-Cannondale’s Elia Viviani, Swift lived up to his name over the 239.4km from Walbrzych to Opole, the longest stage in this year’s tour, to finish in a time of 5 hours 49’57”. Post-race, Swift commented, ‘It was brilliant. We made the call to save our legs for the lead out – if we needed to we were going to put someone on the front but the guys did a perfect job looking after me and got me right into position.’

 

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Sky Nationals Line-up Announced

Alex Dowsett, Jeremy Hunt, Luke Rowe, Ian Stannard and Ben Swift have been confirmed by Team Sky as their riders competing at the 2012 British National Road Race Championships which takes place on June 25 in Ampleforth, North Yorkshire. Stannard will be looking to match or better his two previous top-five finishes whilst veteran Hunt will be looking for his third white jersey to add to those from 1997 and 2001. Neither 2010 winner Geraint Thomas nor reigning champion Bradley Wiggins will attend, concentrating instead on both TdF and Olympic preparations.

 

Race coach Rod Ellingworth comments, ‘It’s an honour to wear the national colours and if a Team Sky rider can make it three wins from three, it’ll be a massive achievement.’ Adding, in reference to the star riders not attending, ‘In an ideal world we’d have our full British contingent competing, but with the Tour de France and Olympics now very much on the horizon, it simply isn’t possible. Bradley, Chris (Froome) and Mark (Cavendish) are all fine-tuning their condition ahead of a busy summer on the road, while Pete and Geraint are now mid-way through a crucial block of Olympic track training.’