Swift takes Basque fifth; Contador stays in front

MADRID: Britain’s Ben Swift claimed victory on the fifth stage of the Tour of the Basque Country on Friday as Alberto Contador maintained his overall lead.
Swift, riding for Team Sky, timed his sprint to the line perfectly to take the 160.2km stage from Eibar to Markina-Xemein ahead of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Michal Kwiatowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) in a time of 3hr 56min 56sec.
Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) finished ninth, but didn’t lose any time on the leaders to ensure he retains his 12-second lead over Valverde in the general classification.
Italy’s Damiano Cunego (Lampre), Australian Cadel Evans (BMC), Frenchman Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) and Russia’s Yury Trofimov (Katusha) are all tied for third a further 24 seconds back.
The race will be decided in Saturday’s final stage, a 25.9km individual time trial around Markina-Xemein.
Swift has had an impressive week in northern Spain as he also finished second and fourth in the second and third stages respectively.
And that came on the back of an excellent third placed finish at Milan-San Remo last month.
Team Sky sports director Dan Frost hailed the victory as the best of the 26-year-old’s career to date.
“That was such a great win from Swifty. It was just what the team deserved at this race — especially Ben,” he told TeamSky.com “It was not a stage we’d have expected Ben to win — more the other two where he was second and fourth — so that just makes it all the more special and I’d say this is probably the biggest victory of his career.”

Brailsford quits

Dave Brailsford, the man who masterminded Britain’s medal haul at the Beijing and London Olympics, has stepped down from his role as performance director of British Cycling.
Brailsford will now focus on his activities at Team Sky, which he led to victory at the Tour de France through Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and Chris Froome in 2013.
Brailsford says “this is a big step but it is the right decision for the team and for me. Since London 2012, we have worked hard on succession planning and that has meant we’ve got to a point where I can move on, knowing the team will go from strength to strength.” The 50-year-old Brailsford presided over British cycling’s most successful era, with 19 gold medals captured across four Olympic campaigns.