Classica Corsica – Rubens Bertogliati «I saw some encouraging things with Clement, Schelling, and Fumeaux»

New to the race calendar as a means of supporting the Critérium International, the Classica Corsica smiled on Thomas Boudat (Europcar) who won the day.  Decimated by injuries and illness, as the abandonment of both Sébastien Reichenbach and Mathias Frank prove, IAM Cycling was still able to play a role over the narrow, winding roads of the beautiful island of Corsica.  Stef Clement, Jonathan Fumeaux and Patrick Schelling all finished with the main bunch who sprinted for the victory.

Rubens Bertogliati, directeur sportif for the Swiss Professional team, was satisfied with his racers, considering the circumstances.  “We have had to deal with a lot of adversity.  Sébastien Reichenbach’s accident while out training and then the digestive problems Mathias Frank has been dealing with were no help, and then we faced losing Sondre Holst Enger’s also due to illness.  Coming to the finish line, we could not really have expected anything better considering we were among sprinters in a finish for the fast men.  Nevertheless, I have seen some very encouraging things from Clement, Fumeaux, and Schelling.  They were all present in the front group at the top of the main climb of the day.  Pirmin Lang didn’t quite have the legs since he was suffering from a cold after Tirreno, and David Tanner has not quite fully recovered from his heavy crash at Milano-San Remo.  By Saturday, we will have to find our competitive legs again if we want to be able to fight among the best over the treacherous roads of the Critérium International.”