Ben Swift takes first professional victory

18.09.2009

Ben Swift took a hugely popular first professional win in Yeovil, to break the Edvald Boasson Hagen deadlock and to become the first British stage winner in The Tour of Britain since Paul Manning in 2007.

The Katusha rider sprinted to victory ahead of teammate Filippo Pozzato, with Bikeability Yellow Jersey Edvald Boasson Hagen in third, who extended his lead over Rabobank’s Kai Reus to 23 seconds, while also retained The Prostate Cancer Charity Points Jersey. 

“It’s really special”, said an ecstatic Swift afterwards, “I’ve come into the race with aims for general classification, but I’ve had bad luck on the second, third and fourth stages, then yesterday I had a good long hard day out in the break.  As soon as I was eliminated from the GC then I was going for stage wins. 

“This is the first time I’ve been able to finish it off, the team’s rode for me quite a few times now and I’ve never quite finished it off, so to pull it off in Britain is quite good!” 

Stage Seven was marked by plenty of attacking riding, with a group of seven riders including Steve Cummings, Geraint Thomas and last year’s winner Geoffroy Lequatre going away but being caught by a Team Columbia – HTC and Katusha led peloton not long after Tiverton. 

Lequatre marked the penultimate stage by twice going on the attack, once in a short lived early move before Okehampton and the second time in the Barloworld led move, as he sought to end his reign as Tour of Britain champion on a high. 

A Barloworld led attack had briefly unsettled Boasson Hagen, with Mauricio Soler, Thomas and Cummings forging ahead on the climb of Cadbury Hill, taking Martin Mortensen, Lequatre and the Columbia duo of Maxime Monfort and Tony Martin with them. 

With Aitor Galdos and Filippo Savini already up the road, the seven man group had something to aim for, and they very nearly made the junction, however other teams failed to share Barloworld’s vision of unseating Boasson Hagen from the Bikeability Yellow Jersey, and as a result the break was slowly inched back. 

In the packed streets of Tiverton the seven joined the original two attackers, but two Columbia policemen in the break it was down to the other teams to chase, with Ag2r La Mondiale, Cervelo and Vacansoleil doing the donkey work to pull the break back. 

British champion Kristian House and Norway’s Stian Remme then took their chance to attack, building a lead of over five minutes, which was slowly whittled down by the peloton. 

Initially the peloton had shown no interest in the pairing as the race passed through Honiton, Sidbury and Sidford, but as the race turned in land along the Axe Valley the chase intensified. 

Garmin’s Thomas Peterson tried first to reach the tiring duo and where he failed, Topsport’s Bart Vanheule succeeded, joining House and Remme and immediately pulling them away from the main field. 

At 15 kilometres to go the gap had edged back out to 14 seconds, but five kilometres later their efforts were all in vain.  Once caught on the run in towards Yeovil several teams and riders tried to attack, but hard work by Barloworld and Katusha brought the race back together, setting up a thrilling sprint win and the home victory that the Somerset and Devon crowds lining the route had hoped for. 

Speaking afterwards, the Yorkshire rider praised the spectators who lined the route through Devon and Somerset, saying, “With the crowds out it’s fantastic, especially going past the schools.  Every village that you go through is just lined out on both sides, it’s really good. 

“Pozzato was looking after me all day, then he was going to try and get away on the last climb and was looking after me on the finish.  Steve (Cummings) did a really good job for G (Geraint Thomas) and then Pozzato took it over coming into the corners, I think there was a bit of a crash in the first corner, but we went round it really quick and opened up a bit of a gap. 

“Then into the second one we went a bit quick and skidded down the barriers and it just opened up a bit more of a gap and I just came around Pozzato with 150 to go.  Pozzato kept on for second so it made it a bit more special.”

Italian national champion, and Tour of Britain stage winner himself, Pozzato agreed that victory was good for the Katusha team, but emphasised the importance of the victory to his young teammate. 

“I really like Ben.  He’s a nice guy and going to be a real talent in the future.  One-two is great for the team, but today is a special day for Ben. 

“The team explained the finish to us perfectly.  We were lined out and attacked, and I led Ben through the final corner.” 

“The way the race had been going I expected people to continue attacking”, said Rapha Condor’s British champion Kristian House, “But I had a message on the radio pretty quickly saying that they’d shut it down and Columbia were happy with just two guys away because they can control that. 

“We knew we were going to get a gap, the question was how big a gap and how long we could hold onto it for.  It definitely started hurting at about 30k to go, and the final sprint it was definitely hurting, so it was just a matter of holding on until the finish and not losing any time. 

“The whole idea of it was to get time to move up the classement, as obviously there’s not been a big split in the race so it’s come down to bonus seconds, and me not being a sprinter doesn’t help, so I needed those time bonuses.  Unfortunately we only had one, but it’s better than nothing!”

Heading into the final stage, the TfL London Stage Norway’s Edvald Boasson Hagen leads The Tour of Britain by 23 seconds, with the Columbia rider all set for a sprinting showdown with Ben Swift, Filippo Pozzato and Chris Sutton on the Embankment in central London.

“I hope so that I can keep it tomorrow.  The team has been working very hard all week, so I’m really satisfied with four stage wins and the Yellow Jersey so far.”

Boasson Hagen is already the most successful rider in the history of The Tour of Britain, with seven stage wins in the last two races, plus the Sprints Jersey in 2008.  Stage Eight gives Edvald the chance to add two more jersey’s to his collection, the prestigious Bikeability Yellow Jersey and The Prostate Cancer Charity Points Jersey.

Racing gets underway at 14.00, with The Prostate Cancer Charity London Ride taking place before the stage in the morning, so spectators are encouraged to come along early to cheer the participants on and bring any lose change for The Prostate Cancer Charity Volunteers who’ll be collecting throughout the day.

For full results of Stage Seven, please visit the results section of tourofbritain.co.uk