Tour de Suisse – Jonathan Fumeaux «It was a complicated stage»

The Tour of Switzerland stage 6 took a scenic route through the Jura region of the country, and ended well for Matteo Trentin (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) who won the sprint into Delémont.  IAM Cycling and Sky had set a torrid pace over the final couple of climbs, and though the peloton had more or less regrouped by the finale, many of the strongest sprinters were missing.  Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) held steady and defended his yellow jersey on the eve of the time trial that will likely suit him.

IAM Cycling, nevertheless, tried to break the race open on the sixth day of their national tour.  Jonathan Fumeaux got the ball rolling, first by joining the breakaway, but had to drop back to the main peloton due to an untimely mechanical problem.  Luckily, the break was swept up long before the finish, and Fumeaux was not bothered by his bad luck.

“It was a complicated and difficult stage.  I grabbed the right break to go with, but I had a small problem with a mechanical.  My team car wasn’t able to get to me in time, and quickly I found myself 20 seconds off the back of the break.  So I decided to sit up and wait for the group.  It was actually a blessing in disguise because then I was able to do some really good work for Mathias Frank, along with Marcel Wyss, on the final climbs.”

Kjell Carlström, directeur sportif along with Marcello Albasini, said he was satisfied with his riders.

“We wanted to put some pressure on Tony Martin, and so we took up the work that team Sky had been doing on the last climb.  Unfortunately, it was a 3^rd category climb and just wasn’t long enough for Mathias Frank really to be able to make a difference.  But we still have more opportunities on Saturday and Sunday.  And in any case, the team played the day perfectly.”