Tirreno-Adriatico – Aleksejs Saramotins: «We’re still a little ways from being able to win a finish like this»

Hardman Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) scorched to an impressive victory just ahead of Peter Sagan and Zdenek Stybar on the tricky finish in the heights of Arezzo.  The Belgian puncheur’s reward aside from the stage victory is now to take the mantle of the leader’s jersey for Tirreno-Adriatico on the eve of a difficult weekend of racing.  IAM Cycling began the day by suffering the loss of Matteo Pelucchi, who didn’t take the start due to illness and the bruises he suffered in a hard crash the day before.  Consequently, the Swiss team struggled to find its footing at the stage end, which was tailor made for the brutes of the peloton.  In the face of the stiff competition, Aleksejs Saramotins was best of his squad in 44^th place. Sébastien Reichenbach (61^th) and Matthias Brändle (63^th) also managed to finish in the front group.

Before returning to the hotel, Saramotins expressed his disappointment when evaluating the stage.  “The finish did not go as we had hoped.  The pack was rolling really very fast in order to catch the break in the last laps within the city.  Your placing was so important at that point, and to get back to where you wanted to be would take so much effort.  We are still a little way from being able to win in a situation of this sort.  In wanting to do well, we spent too much energy leading the pack near the end.  But it is as important lesson that we will absorb and remember for later.  The team was very supportive throughout.  Pirmin Lang, Matthias Brändle and Roger Kluge did everything they could to make things easier for me, but I was not able to pull through and repay the effort with a great result.  I just collapsed in the last flurry of attacks, when the best were there to show that they could win.  I’m still not yet at 100% of my form.  My plans are to be much better for the classics, and hopefully I will have timed it well.”

Rubens Bertogliati, directeur sportif along with Kjell Carlström, did not try to hide behind excuses.  “We had the same tactics as all the other teams.  You had to be well placed at the flamme rouge in order to have any hope of doing well on the final climb to the finish line.  Admittedly we did not have the riders with the strengths to fight against the best in this situation.  Our guys fought very well.  They tried, but facing riders of the caliber of Van Avermaet, Sagan and Cancellara, it was a little mission impossible.”