06 June 2014
IAM Cycling
The month of June offers some important deadlines for IAM Cycling. The Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, the Tour of Switzerland, the Route du Sud and the national championships are all races where the Pro Continental Swiss squad will want to shine.
Each one also will give an excellent means to prepare for the Tour de France, which has long been seen as the number one goal of the 2014 season for Michel Thétaz, founder of IAM Cycling and the CEO of IAM Funds.
Sports manager Serge Beucherie confirms this commitment: The Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and the Tour of Switzerland are among the most prestigious stage races of the season. Naturally they are very important. We are going there not only aiming for a good result, but also with a view towards our preparation for La Grande Boucle. This is not necessarily to say, however, that any riders absent from one or the other event could not possibly still be on the start line in Yorkshire on July 5th.
Serge Beucherie donne les grandes lignes des stratégies mises en place par la direction sportive pour ces courses par étapes.
Serge Beucherie can broadly outline the strategies that the sports management will endeavor to implement for these important races.
For the Dauphiné, we are relying on Sylvain Chavanel in the initial stage which is a time trial in Lyon. But once the race heads into the mountains, we have the advantage of having riders like Stefan Denifl and Sébastien Reichenbach. As far as the Tour of Switzerland goes, it is important to remember that that is our national tour. Mathias Frank will be our leader and we have built a strong Swiss team around him. Riders like Martin Elmiger, Jonathan Fumeaux, Reto Hollenstein, Johann Tschopp as well as Marcel Wyss will be riding with a home field advantage. On top of that, we are heading to the Route du Sud with riders who will also be focused on fine-tuning their form for the Tour de France. I can assure you, though, that we are not taking these races lightly, and certainly are not looking at them as being training rides.
Critérium du Dauphiné
Etape 1: Lyon – Lyon (clm ind. de 10 km)
Etape 2: Tarare Col du Béal (158,5 km)
Etape 3: Ambert Le Teil (194 km)
Etape 4: Montélimar – Gap (169,5 km)
Etape 5: Sisteron La Mure (184 km)
Etape 6: Grenoble Poisy (168 km)
Etape 7: Ville-la-Grand Finhaut-Emosson (161,5 km)
Etape 8: Megève Courchevel (130,5 km)
More about the race letour.fr/criterium-du-dauphine
Twitter @dauphine
Directeurs Sportifs Rubens Bertogliati / Eddy Seigneur
The Line Up