22 February 2015
IAM Cycling
The Tour du Haut-Var did not give the IAM Cycling team a chance to build on the overall team success that they have already enjoyed with Matthias Brändlea stage win at the Tour of Oman and Sylvain Chavanels 3rd place at the Ruta del Sol.
Bad luck got in the way of their ambitions, particularly when a crash forced Jonathan Fumeaux to abandon the race.
And though both Larry Warbasse and Clément Chevrier were in a good position after the first stage of the race, they did not find the strength to make it into the top-20. Instead, Luka Mezgec (Giant-Alpecin) won the stage with a strong sprint, while Ben Gastauer (AG2R La Mondiale) retained his overall lead, which he grabbed with a strong performance during stage 1.
Before moving on to continue his preparations for the Tour of Catalonia, Larry Warbasse refused to see only the problems from the day. The American still could point to the encouragingly good sensations he felt in the two days of racing.
Firstly, I am of course disappointed for Jonathan because he had the legs to do something really special here. Personally, I am not at my optimum form, but the team worked hard for me and placed me well at the bottom of the final climb. However, the pace was a little too much for me today.
Rubens Bertogliati, the directeur sportif for the Swiss professional team regretted that they lost Jonathan Fumeaux.
He was out best asset, and he crashed very early in the day. He managed to continue and rejoined the pack after 25 kilometers of chasing hard behind, but it made no sense for him to continue. With his shape, he would certainly have been a factor in the finale. But perhaps his success is only postponed, since next Sunday he will have another opportunity in Lugano.
As for Larry Warbasse and Clément Chevrier, though they were well positioned on the general classification, they lacked the explosiveness to play for the win. But both of the Haut-Var stages have given the riders a chance to measure their condition in order to know what work they have yet to do in order to be competitive in the next races.
