05 June 2016
IAM Cycling
THE CONCLUSION
Rubens Bertogliati, who acted as the directeur sportif for the team along with Thierry Marichal at this race, declared himself satisfied with the performance of his riders at the end of the final stage. Overall, I am satisfied with how our riders performed, Bertogliati explained. The first two stages were not necessarily suited to our strengths, but the team was able to show itself well in the third and fourth stages. Yesterday we were represented by Brändle in a long breakaway, and then on top of that, we had Mathias Frank finishing in a morale-boosting third place which will top-up his confidence ahead of the Tour of Switzerland. Todays final circuit had a climb that was a little too short for Frank, and therefore was a bit more suited to the classics specialists. But we have seen a very good performance from the team, and the boys cultivated a great atmosphere. At the end of the day, the stage victory went to Belgian Philippe Gilbert, who was able to grab his second stage at this years Skoda Tour of Luxembourg. Oliver Zaugg finished the stage as the best placed rider for IAM Cycling in 13th just a handful of seconds behind the winner.
THE BREAKAWAY
After Matthias Brändle spent yesterday in the breakaway, today it was teammate Pirmin Lang who had the duties off the front. He and four other riders managed to get away from the peloton after just 10 kilometers of racing. Their lead ballooned out to a maximum of eight minutes at one point. The quintet ended up spending almost 150 kilometers at the front of the race before the main group pulled them back in the middle of the difficult final circuit with around 18 kilometers to go. We were tasked with the job of getting someone in the main breakaway, Pirmin Lang explained. After trying yesterday for over 50 kilometers to get in the break, it worked out a little faster today. Unfortunately, in contrast to yesterdays stage, I didnt have the best of legs, so I was missing some strength that I would have liked to have on the final circuit. And considering the amount of time we had gained while in the lead, I did harbor some hope that we could take it all the way to the finish. But the main field, especially Orica GreenEdge and One Pro Cycling, did their best to track us down, which caused the lead to dwindle quickly. Now I will head off to race at the GP Gippingen, which takes place quite close to my home. I am naturally very much looking forward to that event.
THE PROGRAM
While a portion of the IAM Cycling team kicked off the Critérium du Dauphiné in France today, on Thursday another group from the team will be racing the GP Gippingen in the Swiss canton of Aargau before starting the Tour of Switzerland next Saturday, which will be one of the teams major goals for the season.
Race Picture – BettiniPhoto
