Tour of Romandie – Stage 5 – Marcel Wyss «I had good legs, but the level was incredibly high on the last climb»

The queen stage of the Tour of Romandie gave Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) the chance to prove his form with a good win ahead of all of the favorites including Christopher Froome, Nairo Quintana, and Vincenzo Nibali.  In spite of his success, he was unable to take the yellow leader’s jersey since Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) finished a close second on the stage and holds six seconds over the Frenchman. 

Eager to launch its leader Mathias Frank, IAM Cycling gave everything it could, but Frank was unable to follow the best on the steepest slopes of the final climb and finished in 14^th place, ceding 1’05” to the winner.  Suffice it to say that Frank, who comes from Lucerne, Switzerland, was not satisfied with his performance on this most important stage of the tour.  “I would have hoped for a top-5 place or better on this climb, so let’s just say I am very disappointed.  If I finished in 11^th or 12^th in the final ranking, it is not important.”

Marcel Wyss, a friend and teammate of Mathias Frank, could not hide his satisfaction after his own strong performance on the stage, which saw him take 20^th place after working very hard at the base of the climb for his leader.  “I had good legs, but the level was incredibly high on the final climb.  Personally, my job was to place Mathias each time in the front positions of the peloton before the ascents of the Petite Forclaz and then of course for the Champex-Lac climb.  Then I rode at my own pace because I did not have the strength to follow.  Honestly, I am satisfied because my progression has been constant since the beginning of the season.  I’ll take a rest for five days, then it will be perfect timing for a training camp at La Bernina before going to the Pyrenees to do some reconnaissance of the stages for the Tour de France.  My program will then continue with the Dauphiné Libéré, and then some recon of the alpine stages for La Grande Boucle, before I hope to be selected for my second consecutive Tour de France.”

Rik Verbrugghe, the directeur sportif for IAM Cycling along with Thierry Marichal, highlighted the collective effort his team made before considering Mathias Frank’s sub-par performance.  “The guys worked very well, always placing Mathias in an ideal position before the ascents.  He was lacking a bit of explosive climbing to be able to keep up with the best.  But I am not worried.  There is still time before the Tour de France in order to fine tune and improve.  As for Jarlinson Pantano, his rain cap got tangled up in his chain at the absolute worst time on the last climb, and there just was no hope that he would be able to catch back up.”