Critérium du Dauphiné – Stage 3 – Stef Clement «It looked to me like Mathias Frank was by far the strongest of us»

The peloton at the Dauphiné again had a busy day.  Although the temperature was not as punishingly hot as it had been in recent days, the 24.5 kilometer team time trial certainly took a lot of strength out of the riders right up until the finish.  BMC ended the day as the victors with a time of 29’58”, while IAM Cycling rolled in a respectable 9th place 50” behind the winners.  The US team will also have the additional success of taking over the leader’s jersey with Rohann Dennis becoming the new yellow jersey of the Dauphiné.

Nevertheless, IAM Cycling has a lot to be proud of when reviewing its performance in the stage between Roanne and Montagny.  Stef Clement, who is the team’s road captain and plays a key role in the team time trials, was happy to describe his impressions after the finish line.  “I am satisfied with the performance of the team,” Clement explained.  “The course was super hard, it was almost always a false flat which means there was just no chance to recover on the wheels.  From the start, we couldn’t have done more.  For my part, I must admit that I was not on top form.  I’m still recovering from my crash in the Giro.  It looked to me like Mathias Frank was by far the strongest of us today.  He was on my wheel so I really had to apply myself on my pulls, and it was important for me not to drag on too long because otherwise it would have penalized our time.”

Eddy Seigneur, directeur sportif of this race along with Rik Verbrugghe, confirmed this general impression.  “The riders gave the best of themselves throughout,” Seigneur explained.  “Once the race starts there are always small mistakes, but it is all part of the event.  Against teams like BMC, Sky, or Movistar, which are teams that are focused on this discipline, we don’t have too much to be embarrassed about.  It was a tiring enough course.  I think we largely limited the damage for Mathias Frank in terms of the overall classification.  A team time trial is a race where much of the job is largely done well in advance; it is not a performance that can be improvised.  If we want to improve ourselves, we are missing some of our best guys in this type of race.  But we still have a few weeks before the start of the Tour, and we will make every effort to continue to perfect our performance in this discipline.”