03 February 2013
IAM Cycling
Our Directeur Sportif Kjell Carlström shares his first reactions after today’s Tour Of Qatar stage 1 – great second place for Martin Elmiger and strong work from the team!
“The team rode really well together if we consider that it was their very first race as a team! The race was brutal from the start and with the crosswinds the peloton split very fast into many pieces.
We had 7 guys in contention, only Jonathan Fumeaux had some problems with the terrain and type of race, but that we already knew before the race.
For him this is an important place to get some experience that can serve him well in coming races and years.
Eventually the peloton regrouped and it was a new race.
The second time it split we once again had a good position, not perfect, but we made it good by chasing back the first group and immediately after that Martin Elmiger attacked with Rast and Bookwalter.
The only guy with bad luck was Kristof Goddaert, who had a mechanical problem – he was in the right group when it all split again.
He as well as all the others IAM Cycling riders have good legs anyway so we hope for a good performance tomorrow in the team time trial!”
