29 March 2015
IAM Cycling
Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R La Mondiale) put in a performance that won him a double whammy on the queen stage of the Critérium International. The French rider emerged top dog at the summit of the col de LOspedale, and in so doing also won his second consecutive Critérium International. For IAM Cycling, they had a good surprise with the performance from Stef Clement. The Dutch rider regained his strong form after having suffered from an early season virus and fever. His 14th place on the stage, however, was not enough to keep him in the top-10 on the general classification. Instead he ended the three stage, two day race in 11th place.
When asked to analyze the teams performance, Rubens Bertogliati, the directeur sportif for IAM Cycling, was pleased to see that the teams captain was able to stay on the wheels of the best riders during the climb, though he was tailed off in the last couple of kilometers. Stef Clement has done his best. He found the right rhythm and he proved to be a great help for Mathias for as long as possible. Patrick Schelling was forced to abandon due to the pain he was suffering from the stiches he received after a crash yesterday in the time trial. And as for Sébastien Reichenbach, he was not at his best today. He was suffering from the pain in his knee as a result of being doored on Tuesday by a car while he was out training. Both he and Mathias Frank were a little bit off and unable to be among the best today. Mathias was suffering from cramps with four kilometers to go to the line. And his digestive problems from Wednesday probably did not help matters. In fact the amount of fluid and minerals he lost then almost certainly hamstrung him for this very demanding final climb. But Im not worried because his shape is certainly there. He will head now to altitude training, and that will allow him to get into prime shape for the Tour of Romandie, which will be his first main goal of the season.
