Matthias Brändle unlucky fighter at the Tour de l’Ain

“Already Saturday night during my massage, I announced that I was ready to fight for the win.  I had put an X on the stages that correspond to my qualities.  That means that I am even more disappointed that today I missed both the victory and maybe even the yellow jersey by just 20 seconds.”

Justly rewarded as the most combative rider of the day at the Tour de l’Ain, Matthias Brändle had trouble digesting his disappointment after he left the podium celebrations.  As a member of a four man breakaway that slipped off from the first kilometer of the stage between Ferme –Musée de la Forêt and Oyonnax (147.6 km), and then again having made a final dig with only 4 kilometers to the finish, the young 23 year old Austrian fought hard as usual to make the four man break stick it out for the victory.

“I gave it everything I had.  In the last hill, we rode well together.  But behind in the peloton, Europcar, Androni and Belkin all sounded the charge.  I really tried hard, but it was not enough.  One of these days will end with a victory, though.” 

At the end of the stage, won by the Slovenian Grega Bole (Vacansoleil), with a sprint from a reduced group of 40 riders, the yellow jersey passed to the shoulders of Fabio Felline (Androni).  Evaluating his team’s day, manager Serge Beucherie praised the courage of his unlucky rider.

“It was Brändle who we had in mind to fulfill our team’s goal today of animating the race, as we have all tried to do from the beginning of the year.  At the briefing in the morning, we agreed that one of our riders would work to get into the day’s breakaway, given the pitfalls of the course.  And again, it was Brändle who succeeded in finding the opening.”