Swift sixth in Montpellier

Swift: Sprinted to sixth place

Ben Swift sprinted to sixth place after a technical finish on stage 15 of the Tour de France.

The Yorkshireman was the last man in a Team Sky lead-out trio which moved into the mix on a difficult run to the line in Montpellier.

The young sprinter was shepherded into position by Geraint Thomas and Edvald Boasson Hagen and kicked to sixth place in his first taste of a full-blooded Tour sprint.

Thomas again demonstrated his power in the final kilometre to position his team-mates in a great position with a surge so big it saw the Welshman arrive at the head of the peloton with 200 metres to go.

Swift ducked out of the slipstream of Boasson Hagen but was unable to attach himself onto the wheel of Mark Cavendish; the Manxman holding off his rivals to take his fourth victory of the race.

The HTC-Highroad rider stamped his authority on the green jersey classification by edging out Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervelo) and Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) to earn his 19th Tour stage win.

Thomas Voeckler and his Europcar squad were afforded a relative day off from controlling duties as the Frenchman’s dream Tour continued in the yellow jersey.

Transition stage

With the pre-stage threat of cross-winds and echelons failing to materialise the transition stage allowed the team to recuperate after a tough final day in the Pyrenees.

Rigoberto Urán finished safely in the main bunch to maintain his white jersey and 11th position on GC going into the rest day ahead of the Alps.

For the second day in succession an attack moved clear almost instantly as five men headed up the road as the peloton rolled out of Limoux.

The quintet quickly built up an advantage but were not even allowed to gain four minutes on a day that saw the sprinters’ teams determined to have their say.

Speaking after a frantic sprint for the line Swift was philosophical after squaring up against the world's fastest men.

He said: "It was pretty manic. I got looked after really well by Edvald and Geraint. It was fast and I could have just done with one more person in there but obviously you need a lot of luck and a lot of speed to beat Cav.

"I gave it my best shot and got sixth."

Despite a tough batch of stages in the Pyrenees Swift insisted his form is improving, adding: "I’m actually feeling better as the race is going on. I was probably a bit in awe of it all at the start and mentally drained from it all. But I felt better through the Pyrenees; yesterday I was climbing pretty good on what was probably one of the hardest stages of the Tour so I was really happy with that.

"You can see the whole peloton is pretty tired now and if I can keep going like that I’ll be good next week."

Good effort

After the stage Sports Director Sean Yates was happy with the effort shown by the team on a day that failed to spark into life with wind not creating the havoc many predicted.

He said: “It was a good effort. It was a super-fast finish and after 15 stages it showed that it was right to give Swifty a chance. G and Edvald gave him some assistance in the finish.

“The plan was to keep Rigo out of trouble. As it happened it was a fairly straightforward day and there was no drama. Although the wind was strong it never had any real influence apart from making things go really fast.

“There was too much of a tailwind. But when all the teams think [a split] is going to happen it doesn’t happen because they are all up there.

“Obviously Cav took the win after his team had rode all day so hats off to him for coming up with the goods.

"We just needed to get through the day and then tomorrow is a rest day before the Alps.”