Ben Swift (Team Sky) takes the final stage (Image credit: AFP)
After his impressive stage win on the final day of the Tour de Romandie, Ben Swift (Team Sky) will look to take his strong form into the Amgen Tour of California. In the absence of Edvald Boasson Hagen, Swift will lead the line in the sprints as the British team takes on its first crack at the Californian event.
"I should get a few opportunities at California," Swift told Cyclingnews from his base in Italy. "I've got some really nice racing coming up and hopefully I can take my form into those and get some results."
Swift will head to California this week and has both the Tour de Suisse and the Vuelta on his further programme. He will therefore skip the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France.
However, his win in Romandie was his fourth of the season to date, making 2011 the 23-year-old's most successful season to date.
"I've had good condition since coming off Castilla y Leon and so I was just going to Romandie to try my best. We, as a team, wanted to make sure it was a sprint on the final day and the guys were really fantastic."
The victory came after several days of hard competition but Swift still felt fresh enough to wrap it up. "It's was all pretty tough racing in Romandie but I actually enjoyed the terrain," he said. "There were no really hard mountains but plenty of stages that can shake you up."
Swift's win in Romandie, his two in the Tour Down Under and a win in Castilla Leon mean that he's the team's most successful rider this year. Greg Henderson has two victories and Steve Cummings one, but Swift, who took his first win in the 2008 Tour of Britain, doesn't believe this is a break-through season for him.
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"I'm not sure about it being something like a breakthrough year. I'm definitely enjoying a good season but I just want to keep going and chipping away. I'm not looking for peaks of form, instead I just want to be continuously consistent and do the best that I can," he said.
"I'm more of a complete bike rider now and I can definitely hold my own a lot more and I'm really enjoying it."
