Sky's the limit as Yorkshire's Swift claims maiden Tour win

The 22-year-old from Rotherham was second in Friday's opening stage, won Saturday's second and finished ninth in the bunch finish in yesterday's final stage – the 174.5km from Crepy-en-Valois to Sissonne.

Swift's results saw him secure a seven-second advantage in the race in northern France as he bettered Team Sky's previous best finish, Edvald Boasson Hagen's second in February's Tour of Oman.

Spain's Koldo Fernandez De Larrea (Euskaltel) was second and Australia's Allan Davis (Astana) third, with Swift's team-mate and fellow south Yorkshireman Russell Downing fourth.

Swift – who competed in the Olympic road race in Beijing and only joined Sky in the winter after negotiating a way out of his contract with Russian team Katusha – was thrilled with victory and thanked his team-mates for their contribution.

"It's the first GC for me and the first for the team and hopefully now we can pick up a few more," he said.

"They did an awesome job again to control the race right from the word go, they looked after me the whole day. It was perfect and without them I'd have been nowhere."

Denmark's Chris Anker Sorensen won the first mountain stage of the 2010 Giro d'Italia with a commanding climb of the Terminillo.

Sorensen (Team Saxo Bank) was 30 seconds clear of Italy's Simone Stortoni (Colnago) and a further six seconds ahead of Spain's Xavier Tondo (Cervelo Test Team) after a 17-man escape group formed on the 189km stage eight from Chianciano Terme to Monte Terminillo.

Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) retained the race leader's pink jersey, finishing eighth on the day, while his closest rival for the maglia rosa, Australia's Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) finished ninth on the same time to remain one minute 12 seconds down. Stortoni attacked half-way up the 21km climb of the Terminillo and Sorensen set off in hot pursuit. Russia's Evgueni Petrov (Katusha) joined the duo, but Sorensen forged forward with around 5km remaining.

Evans made a move but was closely marked by his general classification rivals and up the road Sorensen emerged from the fog for a memorable victory.

Wakefield time-trial ace Ian Cooke secured a surprise victory in the Yorkshire Cycling Federation 10-mile time trial in East Yorkshire on Saturday, winning by seven seconds.

The 44-year-old, who rides for Team Swift, clocked 21min 14sec for the distance, beating team-mate and prolific winner Joel Wainman from Hull into second spot.

Pre-race favourite Adam Duggleby, the I-Ride Racing Team member from Gilberdyke, was fourth, while Loncolnshire's James Coleman (Cherry Valley RT) took third.

The event was moved at the last minute because of emergency roadworks to a gas main on the usually fast course at South Cave, and the move proved decisive for Cooke, who is better suited to harder courses rather than purely fast, straight dual carriageways.

While Cooke beat Wainman by seven seconds, Coleman was just two seconds further back.

With the top two places sewn up, Team Swift took the team prize as well, with Andy Jackson riding to fifth with 21:31 to complete the winning trio.

And Team Swift's domination continued, with Jo Corbett winning the women's prize with 25min 49sec.

Drighlington BC newcomer Nathan Smith impressed in his ride and won the handicap prize, his time of 26min 32sec being reduced to an impressive 19:32 once his seven minute allowance was taken off.

And of the tandems, the fastest was the Seacroft Wheelers pairing of Mike and Barbara Penrice, who covered the course in 27min 24sec.

Last year's winner Alex Royle (I Ride RT) had to settle for 12th spot with 21:58, more than two minutes slower than his winning time from last year, although the course change meant that most riders were significantly slower than in 2009.