Tirreno-Adriatico – Matthias Brändle «Losing by just two seconds is annoying»

Under a cloudy sky and with a light crosswind, the Tirreno-Adriatico prologue was picked off by one of the many time trial specialists on hand for the race. Adriano Malori (Movistar) won by a nose in front of a second place Fabian Cancellara.  But most importantly for IAM Cycling, Matthias Brändle was barely a hair’s breadth behind the duo, coming away with a strong fifth place in the 5.4 kilometer prologue, which was actually a substitute for the originally planned team time trial.  Poor weather in the Liguria region in the past week necessitated the change.  The switch did not hurt the team since additional IAM Cycling riders brought their A-game to the event with both Roger Kluge and Aleksejs Saramotins finishing well.

Since Michel Thétaz, CEO of IAM Funds and the founder of the team, was watching the goings-on, he was eager to encourage his troops at this event, where the team will be led by directeurs sportifs Kjell Carlström and Rubens Bertogliati.  For today, in a favorite discipline, Matthias Brändle found the strength to hold the best time for twenty minutes, having raced his prologue with a better than 53 km/h average.  The Austrian, and former hour record holder, was torn between two feelings when he analyzed his day.  “I am satisfied with my performance, but I have not managed to have the perfect day.  Losing by two seconds is still annoying, and you can’t stop replaying the film in your head to see where you lost the time.  Personally, I am convinced that I could have negotiated a couple of turns better.  And in the end, these imperfections probably cost me a place at least on the podium.  But it is always easier to know this in hindsight.  This was a very technical prologue, but it also contained long straights where we had to produce maximum power.  I certainly didn’t flub it there; I can tell from my power meter that I did not fail to produce good watts.  I will continue to work on my technique, and I am very willing to put in the effort in order to reach my best possible level.”

Kjell Carlström, one of IAM Cyclings directors at the race, lucidly analyzed the prologue.  “We are pleased with the overall performance.  In a prologue, you have to be perfect in balancing risk taking in the turns and powering the pedals in the straights.  With Brändle and Kluge, we have shown our strength, and all the rest of our guys also rode to their maximum.”