Tour de Suisse – Stage 10 –  Sébastien Reichenbach «I rode a decent race, but to be in the top-10 overall, you really had to be more of a TT specialist than a climber»

The Tour of Switzerland ended in a blaze of glory with the time trial around Bern.  Though the stage win went to Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), who already showed his prowess in Rotkreuz, the yellow jersey ended on the shoulders of Simon Spilak (Katusha) after having been kept warm by Thibaut Pinot much of the week.  In spite of the fact that Jérôme Coppel, as the best finisher from his team, put in a strong performance and took an excellent 7^th place on the stage, IAM Cycling was not in the fight for the overall classification.  Sébastien Reichenbach had performed well in the mountains throughout the week, but was unable to defend his place in the top-10, falling to 13^th on the leader board. 

On the plus side, Stefan Denifl did take home the king of the mountains prize while the team, which has been lovingly supported by Michel Thétaz, did finish 3^rd in the team classification just behind Sky and Trek, but ahead of all the other big teams such as Astana, BMC, Giant-Alpecin, and AG2R-La Mondiale.  It is safe to say that the Swiss team’s results lived up to expectations.

listen to ‘Audio Finish – TDS stage 8 – Sébastien Reichenbach’ on audioBoom

When discussing his day, Sébastien Reichenbach was prepared to be very candid.  “My task was to perform at the high points of the event.  The parcours was challenging where we had constant climbs and technical descents.  I rode a decent time trial, but in order to finish in the top-10 overall, it was more important to be a good time triallist than climber. “

“I am not really disappointed after this week since I have learned a lot.  And the team was very protective of me, and helped me throughout all the stages.  This experience will definitely help me in the future.  My disappointment from the Giro is forgotten and I have turned the page in order to progress.  But I will still be happy to have a small vacation after the Swiss championships.  I feel like I have come to the end of a cycle.”

Kjell Carlström, directeur sportif for IAM Cycling along with Mario Chiesa, was also realistic in his analyzing the performance of all his riders in general, and Sébastien Reichenbach in particular: “The time trial course was probably a little too difficult for Sébastien.  He struggled to find his rhythm with the incessant demands of the very technical course.  But that will be an important experience for his future races.  As for the rest of the guys, I am very pleased with our week.  We were aggressive, and managed several good performances, including Matthias Brändle’s 3^rd place in the prologue and Jérôme Coppel’s 7^th place today.  Of course, we also had Stefan Denifl in a long breakaway, which gave him the points he needed to win the jersey for the best climber of the 2015 Tour of Switzerland.  And then taking 3^rd place in the team classification just proves our point.”