- Feb 20, 2010
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Swift is settling into the José Joaquín Rojas role; he's a durable enough guy to get over obstacles that many pure sprinters can't so he can get you results in a broad range of finishes, but he's seldom the fastest guy who gets to the finish anymore. Like when Movistar had Ventoso (and remembering that unlike Sky, who do search for stage wins in that fashion in races where the GC A-team isn't around, Movistar seldom dedicate a lot of attention to their sprint train, at least outside of Spain) and Rojas got usurped as the team's main sprinter, Viviani is a much more reliable source of sprint results than Swift, so Swift gets relegated to sprinting in the slightly more challenging races that the likes of Viviani would be expected to be dropped in. When he's fully healthy maybe he can get some wins like that but injuries piling up mean that for a while there have typically been faster guys still in the group when he's been able to make it to the end, and when he does try to mix it up in a pure sprinters' stage now he's not got the same acceleration he once had.
If he WAS to leave Sky, which he probably shouldn't for a year or two yet, it would come down to what he wants. He could get leadership sprinting roles at a lesser WT team, but in bigger races he'd get little support against the stronger sprint trains and would need to train-hop against faster guys to accumulate placements; alternatively he could do smaller races and/or go to a Pro Continental team - ONE for example would probably love to have a guy like him. This would give him the chance to pick up some strong placements and occasional victories in semiclassics and .HC and .1 races all over northern France, the Benelux and the improving British calendar (where he'd probably want to peak) much like some other durable second-tier sprinters have been able to do and carve out a good niche for themselves, like Baptiste Planckaert, Yauheni Hutarovich, Roy Jans, Antoine Demoitié, Michael van Staeyen, Raymond Kreder or Gaëtan Bille.
If he WAS to leave Sky, which he probably shouldn't for a year or two yet, it would come down to what he wants. He could get leadership sprinting roles at a lesser WT team, but in bigger races he'd get little support against the stronger sprint trains and would need to train-hop against faster guys to accumulate placements; alternatively he could do smaller races and/or go to a Pro Continental team - ONE for example would probably love to have a guy like him. This would give him the chance to pick up some strong placements and occasional victories in semiclassics and .HC and .1 races all over northern France, the Benelux and the improving British calendar (where he'd probably want to peak) much like some other durable second-tier sprinters have been able to do and carve out a good niche for themselves, like Baptiste Planckaert, Yauheni Hutarovich, Roy Jans, Antoine Demoitié, Michael van Staeyen, Raymond Kreder or Gaëtan Bille.
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