Stephen Swart
Stephen Swart (born Auckland, 5 January 1965) is a former New Zealand cyclist. He began his professional career with British team, ANC-Halfords and rode the 1987 Tour de France with them. After the ANC team folded later that year, he rode for American teams.
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 5 January 1965 New Zealand | ||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||
| Current team | Retired | ||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Road | ||||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | ||||||||||||||
| Professional teams | |||||||||||||||
| 1987 | ANC–Halfords | ||||||||||||||
| 1988 | SEFB | ||||||||||||||
| 1989–1993 | Coors Light – ADR | ||||||||||||||
| 1994–1995 | Motorola | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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With the Motorola team, he participated in the 1994 and 1995 Tour de France. He won the Herald Sun Tour (Australia) and the Tour of Canada.
Swart's older brother, Jack, was a top amateur cyclist.[1]
In the 1986 Commonwealth Games he competed in the 4000m team pursuit, the team came second for silver; and in the 4000m individual pursuit.
Doping and cheating revelations
Prompted by his son's taking up racing, Swart spoke up about doping in cycling. He described Lance Armstrong, his Motorola teammate, as one of the strongest advocates of doping when the team decided to dope. “He was the instigator,” Swart told Sports Illustrated. “It was his words that pushed us toward doing it.” [2] Swart also described his own doping.
When he initially made his disclosures, he was vilified and called a loser. Later, in 2012, he was named the 'New Zealander of the Year' for having told the truth.[3][4]
Swart also testified, under oath in 2006, that he was paid $50,000 to lose a race, by Armstrong.[5]
Major results
- 1988
- 8th Fleche Hesbignonne
- 9th Grand Prix de Plumelec-Morbihan
- 1989
- 7th Philly Cycling Classic
- 1991
- 6th Thrift Drug Classic
- 1992
- 1st
United States National Criterium Championships - 1st Stage 3 Tour of the Adirondacks
- 2nd Overall Celestial Bicycle Classic
- 1st Stages 1 & 2
- 5th Overall Herald Sun Tour
- 1st Stages 10 & 11
- 1993
- 1st Stage 11 Herald Sun Tour
- 1994
- 9th Wincanton Classic
- 1995
- 4th Overall Tour of Luxembourg
| Grand Tour general classification results timeline | ||||||||||||||||||
| Grand Tour | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Giro d'Italia |
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||
 Tour de France |
DNF | — | — | — | — | — | — | 112 | 109 | |||||||||
 Vuelta a España |
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||
References
- "New Zealander emerges from pack Swart 3rd in prologue of Tour Du Pont". 10 May 1991.
- "Stephen Swart: Lance Armstrong Was Ringleader in Encouraging Blood Doping". 18 January 2011.
- "Walsh on heroes: Andreu, O'Reilly, Swart championed truth - VeloNews.com". 11 January 2013.
- @PhilHTaylor, Phil Taylor Senior writer, Weekend Herald and New Zealand Herald phil taylor@nzherald co nz (14 December 2012). "New Zealander of the Year 2012: Stephen Swart" – via www.nzherald.co.nz.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - "Lance Armstrong Accused of Paying Competitors to Lose Races by Fellow Cyclist Stephen Swart (Video)". 20 October 2012.
Sources
- Des Williams (2006). Born to Thunder: Champions of New Zealand Cycling. Last Side Publishing, Hamilton. pp. 252–264. ISBN 0-473-10929-8.
Jack & Steven Swart: Serious Tour riders