Martin Elmiger gambles but comes up short at Qatar

“I felt good.  Despite the hard effort, I still had some reserves at the end.  And like Niki Terpstra, who also still had some strength in his legs, I decided to take a chance with an attack at the end.  It was a gamble and there are times when it does in fact work.  But this time, I just over-estimated how much strength I still had.”

Before settling into his well-deserved massage, Martin Elmiger did not try to hide behind any false excuses, after he scored an excellent 4^th place in the first stage of the Tour of Qatar, though his stab at victory came up short behind stage winner Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quickstep).

Elmiger had a similarly strong result in the second stage of the 2013 edition after taking part in a successful breakaway, though this time the man from Zug mentioned the difficult conditions and the imbalance of the efforts among his escape partners.

«Je ne me suis jamais mis dans la tête que nous arriverions à mener à bien cette échappée. Nous avons profité d’un sprint intermédiaire à moins de 30 km de la ligne pour nous en aller. Le vent était défavorable. Nous avons collaboré mais tout le monde ne s’est engagé à fond. La présence de deux coureurs d’Omega Pharma au sein de notre groupe a aussi changé la donne.

D’un côté, je suis très déçu de cette 4^e place mais d’un autre j’ai apprécié mon niveau. C’est de bon augure pour la suite car il y aura encore des opportunités sur cette course sans parler d’une saison qui sera longue.»

Though tired after the day, Elmiger was in no doubt about just where he made his mistake, beginning around the final 300 meters marker:

“In the first race of the season, it is tough to judge just where your opponents are in their condition too.  But then I saw that Terpstra was working hard.  After the first attack of another Belgian, I realized that there was a moment of hesitation from everyone.  And so I chose to go then hoping that they would watch.  Everyone was tired from the effort of the day. 

We really tapped into our reserves going so much against the wind, keeping a small advantage over the rest of the peloton.  So I had a reasonable chance of succeeding.  But Terpstra was too strong.  So really I do not have many regrets, even if this current disappointment stings.”

Complete results of this first stage thanks to ProCyclingStats