Swift fifth in Suisse sprint

17 Jun 2019

Swift fifth in Suisse sprint

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Tour de Suisse – Stage three: Flamatt – Murten, 162.3km

Ben Swift powered to fifth place in a star-studded sprint on stage three of the Tour de Suisse.
 
The Yorkshireman was manoeuvred into position perfectly by Owain Doull on the run into Murten and sprinted to an impressive finish on the uphill drag.
 
The result was an added bonus on a day which saw both Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal safely negotiate the stage without issues.
 
Finishing in the same bunch as Swift and stage winner Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), Thomas retained eight place overall, while Bernal moved up two places to 15th. Courtesy of his strong opening TT Jonathan Castroviejo also remains firmly in the mix in ninth spot.

Sagan's victory moved him into the overall lead of the race courtesy of time bonuses, 10 seconds ahead of Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step).
Ben Swift

Ben Swift

We had a plan of getting our guys into a good position for three kilometres to go. Once that had happened it was down to me and Owain. He did a brilliant job of looking after me.
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- Ben Swift
 
“The last 50km was quite hectic. Obviously our primary focus here is to look after G and Egan, but I can ride off the back of that and help when I’m needed. But on a team like this we’ve got so much strength in depth that I didn’t need to do anything today until the final. We had a plan of getting our guys into a good position for three kilometres to go. Once that had happened it was down to me and Owain. He did a brilliant job of looking after me – surfing at the side a little bit, using other guys.
 
“At one point it looked better for me to go on my own heading into the technical section. I was in with the group of sprinters at that point and it was all about me trying to get into that final corner in the best position. I made a move and sort of got stuck on the inside of Elia (Viviani) with Sagan on my left. I wasn’t fighting too much but I lost a little bit of momentum. In hindsight I should have hit out a bit earlier. I ended up getting into an overlapping of the wheels and into the elbows. Then once you hit that finish you just stayed where you were.
 
“It was a difficult stage because yesterday was really hard. I think a lot of people were quite tired. The terrain wasn’t overly easy but it wasn’t overly hard, so your body almost went into a bit of a recovery mode. And then as soon as the pace got harder it hurt the legs. At one point I was going to say to the guys don’t think about me I’m not feeling the best. But then once you get into that final 20km race mode kicks in and it was time to go.”
Stage three result:

1. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) 3:39:25
2. Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) s.t.
3. John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo)
4. Ivan Garcia (Bahrain Merida)
5. Ben Swift (Team INEOS)

Overall standings:

1. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) 7:51:31
2. Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) +10"
3. Rohan Dennis (Bahrain Merida) +11"
4. Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) s.t.
5. Lawson Craddock (EF Education First) +16"
8. Geraint Thomas (Team INEOS) +28"
9. Jonathan Castroviejo (Team INEOS) +29"
15. Egan Bernal (Team INEOS) +34"