Vuelta al País Vasco – Stage 6 – Kjell Carlström «This race will serve as excellent preparation»

The Tour of the Basque Country had to finish sometime.  And even if the scenery was again breathtaking today, it was the scheduled time trial that was causing the riders to be short of breath.  In the final effort, Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) emerged as the fastest against the clock with a time of 28’46”.  The overall victory went to Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), who won this race for the first time with an uncharacteristically strong time trial.  The Swiss IAM Cycling team certainly can look back on the week as being far from satisfyingly successful, but the riders have been able to hone some of their most interesting strengths, which is a positive result in view of their upcoming races. 

Come the time to draw conclusions from the last six days of racing, and the results for the team have been far from negative; quite the contrary.  The physical exertion that the Basque roads require will serve as an excellent foundation for future events.  “It was really a hard race,” Kjell Carlstrom, sports director for IAM Cycling, said.  “To be honest, we did not really have the necessary condition to do better than we did.  If you cannot be at 100% from the start, then there is no way you are going to be among the best.  But that said, this event will serve as an excellent preparation for the future.  The riders have piled up very good workloads, and will be in better shape as a result.  So that is a positive point to take away.”

Several of the riders have felt their condition improve day by day, which is another thing that the team management will appreciate.  “Sébastien Reichenbach came here with a small knee problem after being doored.  But now that concern is far behind him.  He showed his strong will by joining the breaks, and that is a very encouraging effort especially considering the Ardennes classics are in his immediate future.”