About Ben
Ben is a 25 year old from Nether Kellet, a small village near Lancaster in the North West of England. He played football and tennis and whilst at the Lancaster Royal Grammar School he started cross country and fell running in the nearby English Lake District. At 13 he started cycling, first with Lancaster Cycling Club and then with the Lune Racing Cycling Club.
In his last year as a junior, 2002, he was invited, by manager Phil Leigh, to join the Compensation Group Racing Team. The following year, this became Life Repair and in 2004 Recycling.co.uk. This period gave him the opportunity to ride with, and learn from, some of the top domestic riders in Britain.
Ben was still with the Recyclingteam in 2005, and his results included wins in the National U-23 Road Race and Time Trial Championships, National Hill Climb Championship and National U-23 Series winner. These successes led to his Great Britain team debut in at the World Championships in Madrid. He was 45th in the under 23 Time Trial.
The progress continued at home in 2006 with his first Premier Calendar and National Circuit Race wins. Riding his domestic races for the Recycling team, still sponsored by Charlie Jackson and now managed by former professional John Herety, Ben took second place in the King of the Mountains competition in the Tour of Britain.
He also rode for the Great Britain U-23 team in a mixture of U-23, amateur and professional races in Italy and beyond. He lived at Quarrata, near Florence in Tuscany with 5 other riders from the Great Britain Cycling Academy. Team manager/coach Rod Ellingworth and former Tour de France stage winner and Olympic medallist Max Sciandri guided the riders during their stay in Italy. During this period Ben produced a series of good results and came to the notice of leading Italian amateur teams.
For 2007 Ben joined the Bedogni – Natalini – Praga team was based at Cintolese, a small village 4 Km from Monsummano Terme near Florence. The team has been in existence for over 50 years, first as a cycling club and later as an elite racing squad. Past riders have included former professional Rolf Sorensen and the present double World Champion Paolo Bettini. Last year the team’s Dario Cataldo won the 35th Giro D’Italia under 26. Over the course of the season Ben produced a total of 12 'top 10' finishes including 7 'top 5's'.
In 2008 Ben rode for the new Rapha Condor Recycling.co.uk team in what was to be a predominatly international race calendar. The team included a mixture of young and experienced riders including Chris Newton, Kristian House & Dean Downing.
But as Ben said, "Injuries ruined the first part of my season and any chance of going to the Olympics. After June I started to improve and after a good set of results I prepared for the Tours of Ireland and Britain. Sadly a crash in the Tour of Ireland brought my season to a premature end; see my Diary item."
