Eneco Tour – Oliver Naesen «IAM Cycling has what it takes to play for the win»

THE EXCLAMATION

From Oliver Naesen: “IAM Cycling has what it takes to play for the win at the Eneco Tour.”

THE EXPLANATION

Again offered by Oliver Naesen: “Without wanting to sound pretentious, and firmly keeping our feet on the ground, we have some serious arguments for success. In all likelihood, the Eneco Tour will be decided by small differences. And those differences will mostly be made in the individual time trial and the team time trial. And with engines like Matthias Brändle, Reto Hollenstein, Roger Kluge, Martin Elmiger, and Dries Devenyns, we have some very strong rouleurs.”

THE FACT OF THE DAY

The IAM Cycling riders will already be gathered together on Saturday evening so that they can work together on Sunday practicing their technique for the team time trial. They will all work on getting their rotation down so that they can be as effective as possible.

THE ANALYSIS

As provided by Rik Verbrugghe, sports manager for IAM Cycling. Directeurs sportifs Thierry Marichal and Lionel Marie will accompany him throughout the stage race that will start in the Netherlands and finish on the famous Mur de Grammont in Belgium. “We will really have to be careful every second of the first stage not to be caught out by echelons. In Zeeland, and in many of the other stages as well, the wind direction can cause breaks in the pack and echelons that could decide the fate of the race. Of course, there will be other tricky moments with a difficult stage that is worthy of an Amstel Gold Race, and the final finish line on Sunday at the top of a seriously difficult bump.”

THE MEMORY

For the 2015 edition that was won by Tim Wellens (Soudal Lotto), and took place in its usual August time slot, Reto Hollenstein ended the race as the best-placed IAM Cycling rider in 15th position. Meanwhile, Matthias Brändle and Jonas Van Genechten each took a fifth place on a stage to notch up the team’s best individual results for the week of racing.

THE NUMBER

336 – That is the number of World Tour points that IAM Cycling has earned since the beginning of the 2016 season, tallying 147 more points than in the whole of 2015. This has not prevented the Swiss team from occupying the second to last place in the standings for World Tour teams that are led by Movistar with 1411 points.

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Pictures – BettiniPhoto, Sirotti & IAM Cycling