09 February 2013
IAM Cycling
“The terrain of the Tour of Oman is more tormented, we replaced Heinrich Haussler by Johann Tshopp on the start list.
Johann’s profile is actually more suited to the requirements of this race and he will be supported by Jonathan Fumeaux on rougher stages to increase our chances on the overall standing. The absence of Heinrich on this race may leave more room for other team sprinters to seize their chance in sprint finishes.
I’m very positive about the races on which we were engaged this week.
We certainly failed a bit of luck to transform the second place of Martin Elmiger in a victory on the first stage of the Tour of Qatar. But the whole team had a perfect behavior on this race: Heinrich Haussler has made his mark with his teammates ahead of the Classics, Pirmin Lang showed the organizers that they had reason to select us by animating the race every day .
Our goals are simple for the first part of the season: to have an influence on the races and to fight every day for the win. In that sense, I can say that the contract has been fulfilled in Qatar.
On the Tour Méditerranéen side, satisfactions too – Matteo Pelucchi and his excellent performance in the sprint with his second place behind Andre Greipel, Thomas Löfkvist taking fourth place in a demanding individual time trial, Gustav Larsson, Stefan Denifl and Matthias Brändle well placed too. Things are taking place with much consistency, I’m sure all this work would soon bear fruit.
But the life of the team is not limited to racing, we also have a group in training supervised by our Directeur Sportif Marcello Albasini in the south of France.
Five men – Alex Pliuschin, Sébastien Reichenbach, Patrick Schelling, Marcel Aregger and Marcel Wyss – are doing a strong work of preparation.
They work hard to increase the level and I am confident that their contribution will soon participate to build our successes.”
Serge Beucherie
