Tour de Romandie – Stage 6 – Mathias Frank «I’m disappointed, but I know I can and must improve in time for the Tour»

The Tour of Romandie ended with a surprise winner under rainy skies in Lausanne.  Even if Tony Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) was able to reconfirm his position as a champion of the specialty racing against the clock by winning the sixth stage, that the final overall victory went to Ilnur Zhakarin (Katusha) ahead of his teammate Simon Spilak, was certainly much more surprising.   For its part, IAM Cycling finished the week of racing in its own backyard with a very good 8^th place on the final stage by Stef Clement, who put in a fast time trial in spite of the dangerous road conditions due to the rain and standing water on the course.

Though he came to the race with ambitions of a top-5 finish, Mathias Frank has been left still hungry after placing 12^th in the overall classification.  “I am disappointed, but I know that I can and I must improve before the Tour de France.  I am still missing that extra important something.  That fact is neither good nor bad.  But in an event of this caliber, if you are not 100%, then there is no way you can fake it.  I’m not worried because I can analyze my data with my coach and make improvements.  We will work to fill in the gaps in the coming weeks, but in the short term, I will rest a little.”

Michel Thétaz, the founder of IAM Cycling and the CEO of IAM Funds, was pleased with the collective performance of his team.  “The weather was mixed overall, but it was good when we rode the team time trial and when Jarlinson Pantano took 2^nd place during the second stage.  Of course we would have liked to see our leader Mathias Frank gain a little better position overall.  But I am especially pleased with how capably the team rode together and how our riders showed themselves so well in our own back garden.  The Tour of Romandie is an important warm-up race before other major events, such as the Giro, the Dauphiné Libéré, the Tour of Switzerland, the Tour de France, and the Vuelta.”

Rik Verbrugghe, the team’s manager sportif, confirmed these comments. “I am not worried about Mathias Frank.  He was not missing much to be among the best.  Comparing him with the favorites for the Tour de France, he is not out of the running.  The others like Froome, Nibali, and Quintana also have work to do, just like Mathias.  We’ve planned to prepare him with a specific program of an altitude training camp, stage reconnaissance, and then the Dauphiné Libéré, in order to arrive at top form in late June.  Apart from his performance this week, I am also happy to see the excellent team work as well as individual performances from guys like Stef Clement, Jarlinson Pantano, and Marcel Wyss.”