Vuelta a España – Stage 8 – Simon Pellaud – «When there was a big crash, I heard some screams, it was scary to see» –

The eighth stage of the Vuelta could have served mostly as a transition.  The use of the conditional is required because the pressure was on between Puebla de Don Fadrique and Murcia.  Repeated crashes and a sustained high-pace proved to be the themes of the day.  Nothing proved to be too much for Jasper Stuyven (Trek Factory), who was able to take his first grand tour victory at the end of the tumultuous day.  Though the sprint finish was missing the serious firepower of Degenkolb, Bouhanni, Sagan, Ewan, and others who were caught out in crashes, or just not up to the climbing of the day, the young Belgian still out-paced the very snappy Pello Bilbao (Caja Rural) and Kévin Reza (FDJ). 

Unfortunately, IAM Cycling was also absent from the finale having once again been caught out on a complicated day at the Vuelta.  Though some of their riders are currently not at their best, they are certainly missing the help of two of their teammates after Matteo Pelucchi and David Tanner were forced to abandon, and the team now looks forward to a stage with terrain more conducive to their riders’ strengths.

Ahead of dreaming about victory celebrations, the Swiss team must first come to grips with the extreme heat facing the peloton on the Spanish roads.  Since the beginning of the race, the heat has been ever-present, and everyone has had to find his own ways of dealing with it.  Simon Pellaud, a stout believer in the ice bath, was willing to give his impressions of the day while soaking his feat in freezing cold water.  “Today’s stage had almost 2000 meters vertical drop, which explains the amazing speed we were riding.  That’s another reason why everyone was still pretty fresh by the time we got to the finishing kilometers, which were very stressful. Everyone wanted to be well-placed for that climb, especially since everyone knew it was going to be on a pretty narrow road.  It was dangerous.  There as a big crash with Nacer Bouhanni, Tejay Van Garderen, and Chris Boeckmans in particular going down hard.”

“Our team was very fortunate to have been spared.  I heard some screams; it was scary to see. But then again, we still had the business of racing the stage at hand, and certainly had to reach the finish line.  More personally, I have eight stages in my legs and I am beginning to feel tired.  But this is a huge chance that the team has given me by letting me come to the Vuelta in the first place.  I am savoring every moment especially since I don’t really have any pressure to perform here.  This has also allowed me to avoid these moments of huge stress, or jockeying for position and losing energy in stupid ways.”

Inevitably, the members of the sports management were speaking a little less enthusiastically about how the day went for the team.  With no one placed among the riders at the front of the race for the sprint finale, the IAM Cycling team can only look forward to a better stage to come.  Having no one at the finish is what particularly displeased Eddy Seigneur, directeur sportif along with Mario Chiesa.  “The instructions for the day were similar to what we have asked in the previous days: be in the breakaway,” Seigneur explained.  “But I have a feeling that all the team managers must have given the same orders.  The main break left and we were not represented.  It’s complicated for us because Vicente Reynes is not at his best right now.  So they tried, but it was not obvious.  To succeed, you need to have seven competitive riders, all in top form.  Our guys here are all at different levels at the moment.  But we are looking ahead to future stages for our riders who are good at the longer climbs like Thomas Degand, Jérôme Coppel or Larry Warbasse.  I think they can certainly pick a stage and put a pin in it.  But for the moment it is clear that IAM Cycling is not at its best.”