27 Mai 2015
IAM Cycling
(source: http: Baloise Belgium Tour /Dieter Vanderlinden)
Heute Morgen war in Belgien eine spezielle Atmosphäre, ein Klima, dass man als gelassen hätte betrachten können. Alles war im Schweizer Lager organisiert, millimetergenau. Ohne Druck, nur Zuversicht. So wie wenn etwas den wunderschönen Sieg von Matthias Brändle bei diesem Zeitfahren, welches die Belgien-Rundfahrt eröffnete, vorhersagen würde. Diesen Sieg, den hat der Fahrer von IAM Cycling sich hart erarbeitet. Konzentriert und mit grosser Beherrschung auf der sehr technischen Strecke über 6,2km, bot der Ex-Stundenweltrekordhalter seinen Konkurrenten die Stirn, darunter auch Rohan Dennis (BMC), welcher 2 Sekunden Rückstand hatte.
Aber das Schweizer Profiteam hat sich nicht nur durch den Sieg von Matthias Brändle ausgezeichnet, sondern auch durch die ausgezeichnete Leistung von Martin Elmiger. Lange mit der besten Zwischenzeit beendete der Schweizer Strassenmeister das Rennen auf dem 4. Platz mit 9 Sekunden Rückstand auf den Tagessieger. Ein grossartiger Start für Martin Elmiger, der nun eine sehr gute Ausgangslage in der Gesamtwertung hat, Wertung, die im Moment von seinem österreichischen Teamkollegen angeführt wird.
When asked to assess his ride, Matthias Brändle was obviously happy and playful when sharing his impressions. It was not very long, but it was hard! Im really happy with my result and my race. I have not raced for some time. I have been mostly training and now all my efforts are rewarded. Yet I still dont feel 100% on my game, so I came here to test myself, and in the end the result was encouragingly conclusive. I am doubly pleased because it was not really an easy course. The prologue was short, so we had to get going very fast. There were many turns and I had to be careful approaching them, but then had to accelerate out of them very quickly.
His expert reading of the course was rewarded with the victory, but also the overall lead. Brändle is committed to defending the distinctive bright red leaders jersey. Of course, I will do everything to defend the jersey, Brändle confirmed. But I cant say I am going to win the Tour of Belgium since we are still very far away from the finish. We must not forget that we have many good riders in the team including Martin Elmiger and Dries Devenyns, who are both in good shape. The next stages will be difficult, so if I lose the jersey, but it stays within the IAM Cycling team, that will certainly be a great satisfaction.
Eddy Seigneur, directeur sportif along with Mario Chiesa, reiterated these sentiments regarding the teams goals for the Belgian race. We have started as well as can be hoped with Matthias and Martin in first and fourth. We came here to win a stage; now thats been accomplished we have additional goals to work towards in the coming days. We can be pleased since this initial success takes a lot of pressure off the entire team, but also Matthias who really wanted to win. Now the team will have more work to do since we will want to defend the jersey. We are the race leaders and we must do everything to preserve this leaders jersey. Opponents are bound to attack us, but if we ride intelligently with our great team, then we should be able to succeed.
