VeloHuman

Tag: IAM Cycling

  • Heinrich Haussler: “I’m Ready to Race.”

    Heinrich Haussler: “I’m Ready to Race.”

    HeinrichHausslerToB

    The past several seasons have not been easy for two-time Monument runner-up and Tour de France stage-winner Heinrich Haussler. After a marquee 2009 campaign in which he racked up those big results and a few others, crashes and injuries slowed him down for a number of the seasons that followed. Haussler recovered from a broken hip and pelvis in 2013 to race a full 2014 schedule, ultimately taking a stage win in Bayern Rundfahrt and a few top tens (including a 2nd place in the Tour de France) on the year, though the results were still not where they used to be.

    But 2015 is a new year for Haussler, and, importantly, he will take on this season with last year’s mileage and an offseason of good training as a solid starting point, rather than having to start from scratch after having his season derailed by injury or surgery.

    Writing for CyclingTips, VeloHuman caught up with Haussler ahead of Sunday’s National Championships Race. You can check out the conversation there or here:

    VH: This will be your first Australian National Champs race and your first Tour Down Under since 2012. What motivated you this year to be in Australia for January?

    HH: I wanted to try something different and also get a lot of good training in my legs. We already came out to Australia in the middle of December just to get used to the heat, and you can train just better here than you can in Europe. Last week for example, the whole of Europe was just covered in snow, it was just freezing, negative temperatures, and no one could train. So that was really the main idea, and second, we were waiting on whether we were going to go Pro Tour or not. So if we were – and we did get the Pro Tour spot – we’d have to do Down Under, and I wanted to do Nationals, Down Under, and Cadel Evans’s race.

    VH: What is it like training here [Haussler and his IAM team have been in the alpine town of Bright over Christmas holidays]? What do you think it’s going to be like racing in front of Australian crowds?

    HH: The way I’ve seen it the last few years, it’s just getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and all of a sudden I notice it when I’m out training, there’s just so many cyclists here, it’s amazing. It’s grown so much in the last decade or so. It’s good for cycling. I’m really looking forward to racing Down Under. I’ve always followed the last few years on TV, and I saw that my form was good so I wanted to try to do something on one or two stages.

    VH: You made it through 2014 relatively unscathed after a tough 2013, and of course before that you’d had some misfortune with crashes and injuries here and there for a few seasons running. Do you feel that a full season on the road and then a full offseason to follow has given you an opportunity to get to your very best for 2015?

    HH: Yeah. I’m not saying now that I’m at my “best” but I was just talking to a few mates about that the other day. This is the first year since 2009 where I’ve gone through a full season of good racing in my legs without having any bad crashes or an operation or breaking a bone or something. It makes a massive difference, getting back on the bike in the winter, getting ready, it just puts you on another level. And also, having a Grand Tour in your legs. So I’m really excited and I’m ready to go for this year and just see where it takes me.

    VH: Do you feel like your offseason training went according to plan?

    HH: Yeah, I mean, the stuff that I’m doing now in training, it’s making me a little bit excited. And I’m ready to race.

    CT: The National Champs circuit looks pretty open this year. It’s never easy taking on a team with greater numbers like GreenEdge in that race, and you’ve said that you’re not necessarily at your very best peak form at this part of the season, but are you expecting to contend for the National Championship race?

    VH: Now that Gerro is out with a broken collarbone it’s just opened it up completely. The way Richie [Porte] rode the time trial yesterday, he’s just super strong, so it’s going to be an interesting race. Either twenty guys go up the road in the first two laps and the right guys are in it and then it’s already game over, or maybe teams like Sky or BMC, they really want to try to keep it together for those last two laps for Richie and Cadel. But without Gerro there, they [Orica-GreenEdge] have the numbers but they’re not really a team that I’m worrying about

    CT: Do you have a strategy in mind for the race?

    VH: There’s no big strategy about it. Either me or [David] Tanner in the group in the beginning, and if it’s a good group – obviously we know who needs to be in the group, if there’s three or four GreenEdge guys, two BMC, and a Sky, and a few of the national teams – then the group is going to the go to the finish. But if it’s only six or seven guys that get up the road, then obviously you can control the race. You know, we’ll see, if twenty guys go up the road, we have to be there. If not, sit tight, wait, wait, save energy and see what we can do in the last two or three laps. The course is that hard that I think there’s nothing else you can do. If one guy goes with six or seven laps to go, you’re just going to burn yourself.

    CT: After Nationals it’s on to the Tour Down Under. With the January start, some riders come into the Tour Down Under with lowered expectations, with big goals that might be a bit later in the season. Would you say that’s the case for you, or are you thinking you might be able to pick up a win or two in the race?

    VH: Yeah, that’d be nice if it would happen! But a lot of people underestimate the Tour Down Under. They think, you know, come out to Australia, first race of the year, the stages are only 140 km. But when I came in 2012, it was just as hard as the Pro Tour races in Europe. . . . It’s still absolute full gas. . . . There’s points up for grabs, they want to show the sponsors, the teams on TV, there’s no mucking around anymore. Everyone comes here 100%. But I’ll be ready to try and do something.

    CT: Have you had a chance to look at the roadbook and pinpoint the days that fit your skillset?

    VH: Well there’s four stages where I could have a go. The other two, with Willunga and the new hilltop finish, they’re not for me. But we’re coming out with a really good team, a strong team. We’ve got a new climbing guy, [Jarlinson] Pantano. We’ll see how he goes, we’ll try to keep him up there on GC. But like I said, it’s hard racing. Even the second stage, in Stirling, what I saw last year, there were a lot of good hill climbers in the final and not so many sprinters left, but I think that could be a stage where I could have a go, I’ll just have to see what happens in the race.

    CT: So Jarlinson Pantano is the GC leader for the team?

    VH: I’d say so. The rest of the guys aren’t really top climbers. Though, even David Tanner, he also came out to Australia, we’ve been training together, you never know what he can do.

    CT: Do you feel that your offseason has gotten you to the level you need to be for the Classics?

    VH: To be honest I don’t think I’ve ever been this strong before.

    CT: For the spring is it all-in for the Classics?

    VH: Definitely. I told the team that I don’t want to do the Tour this year. It’s 100% for the Classics.

    CT: So no Tour de France?

    VH: It’s just too much stress. I’d rather do the one-day races, and afterwards have a little bit of rest for the summer and build towards the next one-day races, Eneco Tour and Hamburg, Plouay, maybe the races in Canada and then build up again for the World Championships. If you do three times building up, it’s really hard to calculate and you’ve got to get things 100% so I’d rather do one big block, have a rest, do another big block of altitude maybe, and then get ready for the second part of the season. The thing is, if you come out of the Tour already cooked and really fatigued, you might still go to races but the season is already over.

    CT: This will be IAM’s first year at the WorldTour level. You are one of the veterans on the squad who have already ridden at a Pro Tour level in the past. How well do you think IAM will be able to contend with that full WorldTour schedule on the horizon, this year and beyond?

    VH: For the future, I hope Michel [Thétaz, team founder and General Manger] hangs around. I’ve never met a guy like him before, it’s amazing, there should be more guys like him in the sport. I have absolutely no worries about the team for this year. We’ve got a lot of good new riders, riders that are very solid, that can work hard, that can do their job. But also, especially for me, new guys for the Classics, like Jonas Van Genechten and Dries Devenyns. We already knew these guys before, I’ve seen them and how well they ride, and I’m absolutely really happy with the team. I think a lot of the people at the end of the season will wonder: where did IAM come from? Why were they so good this year?

    CT: By season’s end, what will it take for you to consider 2015 to have been a success?

    VH: In 2012 I had good racing again in the legs, and then in 2013 I was kind of back, I had top 10s again, in the Classics I could attack, I could actually do stuff and just have that feeling again, to be able to go on the cobbles, to have that sensation where you could stand up and attack. I want to get back to that. I want to have fun racing again. Sometimes it’s really frustrating, because you haven’t had the legs and you see the guys go up the road and you just think, “Fuck, what am I doing here? I can do this!” But I just didn’t have the form. But it’ll come. Just normal stuff, at the training camp, sitting around with your teammates, eating, laughing, joking, the spirit is just different this year. And that will reflect also on our results. It’s a bit of a family feeling. You have to have that, you have to be happy in your own environment. You know what I mean? If you are on a team and you’re not happy, sitting in a bus, guys next you and you don’t talk to them, obviously you’re not going to ride well because you don’t want to be there. I just want to get back to that level where I was, for example, in 2009 or 2013.

    CT: Is there one particular race where you feel like you have unfinished business?

    VH: All the Classics. They’re all open for me. I love these races. I especially love Sanremo. Obviously it’s going to be very, very difficult to win or get a good result there, but it’s still my number one goal to be good in the Classics and get the highest result possible.

    CT: With San Remo being around the corner now, how do you feel about the 2015 San Remo route?

    VH: I think it’s perfect. That is San Remo. That’s the way it should be. They shouldn’t always be trying to make these races harder and changing the tradition of the Classics. I know some organizers just want to change races and make them even harder and harder and harder. That’s the way it’s been for the last couple of years. But I think, yeah, not just me, but a lot of the other guys out there, they’re happy with the way the route it’s, that’s the way it should stay.

    -Dane Cash for CyclingTips

    Photo by Katie Chan.

  • IAM Cycling In, Europcar Out, Astana Warned: A Closer Look at the WorldTour Licensing Decisions

    IAM Cycling In, Europcar Out, Astana Warned: A Closer Look at the WorldTour Licensing Decisions

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    The Annual WorldTour license distribution process is, for most teams in the top division, a formality of paperwork. Winter 2014’s licensing period, however, has proven to be a newsworthy affair: one team was promoted from the Pro Continental level to the WorldTour, one team lost its WorldTour license, and one team was awarded its license with several strings attached, including a requirement to undergo a third-party investigation. The promotion, the demotion, and the probation each merit a closer look.

    IAM Cycling Joins Cycling’s Top Division

    Starting with the feel-good news, Swiss outfit IAM Cycling was officially awarded their WorldTour license in the first week of December. The announcement wasn’t a surprise by the time it came (various outlets had reported that the promotion was likely), but it was nonetheless a confirmation of much planning and hard work paying off. IAM Cycling came into existence in 2013 and made a few key signings prior to the 2014 season that made clear their commitment to competing with the elite teams in the sport. The team’s marquee additions, Mathias Frank and Sylvain Chavanel, both turned in fine seasons, elevating IAM Cycling to the top of the pile among Pro Continental squads (no team ranking system is perfect, but they did earn the highest Cycling Quotient Ranking of any PCT team).

    With Cannondale’s exit creating a WorldTour opening for the 2015 season, IAM saw their opportunity to advance and took advantage of it. The team may not have the abundance of race-winners of Movistar or Tinkoff-Saxo, but the collection of established talents and up-and-comers (including newly signed Clément Chevrier and Sondre Holst Enger) should prove sufficient for IAM to stay relevant even on a tougher schedule, a sentiment shared by team GC leader Mathias Frank. Frank is a bona fide contender in the stage races, especially the one-weekers, Sylvain Chavanel is a deadly one-day racer, time trialist, and stagehunter, and Matteo Pelucchi and Heinrich Haussler are capable of delivering results on flatter profiles. In other words, the squad may not have the depth of talent to support a Grand Tour winner, but strong riders in key roles give them the firepower to take a few wins at the WorldTour level.

    Europcar Denied WorldTour License

    As IAM joins cycling’s top division, Europcar will leave it behind. It’s one and done for the French team, who earned a promotion for the 2014 season only to find themselves facing a budget shortfall for 2015, a shortfall that ultimately led the License Commission to deny the team’s WorldTour application. From a business standpoint, things are dire for the squad right now (Europcar will be pulling out as a sponsor after 2015), but, all things considered, a demotion to the Pro Continental ranks may be for the best. Europcar was the WorldTour’s weakest link in 2014; to return to Cycling Quotient for further guidance, the French outfit was dead last among WorldTour teams in CQ Rankings this season, and not far ahead of PCT squads IAM Cycling and Cofidis, despite receiving automatic invites to all WorldTour events. Pierre Rolland was an admirable 4th in the Giro d’Italia, but beyond that the WorldTour spoils were thin for Europcar. As a French team composed almost exclusively of French riders, Europcar is likely to get invited to the major French races regardless of whether they are at the WorldTour level, and for a French team composed almost exclusively of French riders, that’s what matters. Given the squad’s struggle to deliver results when stretched thin across the WorldTour calendar this year, dropping to the second division might not be the worst thing in the world for Europcar.

    Astana Rides On

    The biggest news item of WorldTour licensing system was not a promotion or demotion, but, oddly enough, a renewal. Having racked up two doping positives in their WorldTour squad and a total of five across their whole organization in 2014, along with other reported misdeeds (alleged collaboration with doping doctor/cycling persona non grata Michele Ferrari) to boot, Astana’s 2015 WorldTour spot was not guaranteed. However, after a review period, the UCI announced Wednesday that Astana would, in fact, receive their license. For many fans, awarding the Kazakh outfit with a ticket to ride at the top division was tantamount to old-fashioned complacency with a broken system, but from a legal perspective, the UCI was in a difficult spot. The last time the UCI’s License Commission (an entity that operates independently) attempted to take action against a team that had racked up too many positives (Katusha), the team appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and ultimately won the case, setting a precedent for future attempts to use the licensing process in a punitive fashion. Though repeated doping offenses within their organization and allegations of collusion with Michele Ferrari make it difficult to ignore the signs of potential systematic problems, in point of fact, the Astana WorldTour squad only notched two positive tests this season. A denied license probably would not have held up under CAS scrutiny with the current body of evidence, at least the body of evidence that exists publicly.

    Instead of setting up a costly and potentially embarrassing CAS battle, the License Commission gave Astana their WorldTour license but attached a few important probational strings to the decision; among them, a stipulation that Astana be subject to an independent audit with the understanding that should further evidence of rule-breaking come to light, the WorldTour license could be withdrawn. In short, this might not be the end of the story for Astana’s WorldTour ride in 2015, especially with evidence from the Padova investigation on Michele Ferrari still to be released. For now, the team’s big stars Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru will have their guaranteed invites to the Giro and Tour lined up, but that could change in an instant if the UCI uncovers further signs of operational “deficiencies” at Astana. The decision did not play very well on the Twitterverse, but it will give the governing body time to gather more information and potentially make a better case for taking Astana’s license in the future.

    -Dane Cash

    Photo by Don Barrett.

  • Mathias Frank Almost Back to Full Strength, Preparing for Another Run at a Tour de France Top 10 and the (Potential) “Big Challenge” of a WorldTour Promotion

    Mathias Frank Almost Back to Full Strength, Preparing for Another Run at a Tour de France Top 10 and the (Potential) “Big Challenge” of a WorldTour Promotion

    Mathias Frank

    After a busy season that left him with a much-improved résumé but also a broken femur and second career Tour de France DNF, Mathias Frank is enjoying some time off. Earlier this year, his first with IAM Cycling, Frank landed in the GC Top 10 of five straight stage races, claiming runner-up honors in the Critérium International, Bayern Rundfahrt, and Tour de Suisse, and also racking up a few stage wins as well during the excellent run of performances from March to late June. The 27-year-old seemed primed for a successful return to the Tour de France, a race he’d abandoned in his 2010 debut due to a broken thumb and torn thigh muscle sustained in a crash in the prologue. However, Frank’s 2014 Tour campaign went awry on Stage 7, when he was one of a hapless bunch of riders who hit the deck hard inside the final kilometer. The crash left him with a broken left femur, an appointment with a surgeon, and another DNF in the world’s biggest race. Frank spent two months away from competition recovering before returning for a few one-day races to close out his 2014 racing program while getting a bit of strength back in his legs. Now one month removed from the season, he is (finally) nearly back to full health.

    “From the femur, I don’t feel anything anymore. I don’t have any pain or anything. There was a little imbalance at the last test I did, so I’m still working with the physio on it, but I’m sure I will be at 100% pretty soon again,” he told VeloHuman in a phone interview this week.

    As he takes those last few steps towards full recovery, Frank is able to look back on his season in a positive light. As frustrating as his Tour de France journey was, he still managed to put together an excellent first half of the year, which Frank acknowledges was “definitely” the best spring in his career. “Normally it always took me a bit longer to get into good shape. This year I was really happy to open the account early in the Critérium [International] and from then on, I did some pretty good racing the whole spring. So it was the best first part of the season for me,” he said.

    Frank joined IAM Cycling this season after several years in the red and black of BMC. Coming off a fine 2013, the Swiss rider was a promising addition to the Swiss team that was making several big improvements at the time, also bringing in star all-rounder Sylvain Chavanel. One might expect the season’s high hopes to have come with high pressure, but Frank says that he did not feel pressured to perform, at least not by anyone other than himself. “It’s something you always put on yourself, the pressure. I don’t feel any pressure from the team, it’s more my expectations that I have. . . . I think the expectations that I have are more than what the team has! The team really doesn’t put any pressure on me,” he said.

    Frank’s own motivation and the low-pressure team atmosphere contributed to a major step forward in results. Frank attributed his early season success to a “combination of different things,” among them, a new role in a new team: “The environment, the role that I have, that I can go for myself. I think I already felt in BMC the last couple of years, 2012 and 2011, I could see that I was always a competitor. I couldn’t really turn that into results but from the numbers from training I knew that I was quite close to being where I was this year. So it wasn’t really a surprise—I think that there were a lot of things coming into place.”

    The multiple podium performances in the spring raised Frank’s expectations even higher for the Tour, but when his run at the main goal of his season came to a sudden end in a heap of riders and mangled bikes near the finish line in Nancy, it was a psychological blow. Still, Frank seems to have already put the frustrating Tour behind him. “For sure, I was super disappointed,” he said. “I had a big chance going for the Tour in the really good shape that I had after the Tour of Switzerland, but at the end . . . that’s how it is. Crashes, they happen. You can’t do anything but get up and try it again next year. What also helped me this year was that I became a father in June, during the Tour de Suisse, so when I was home, there was something else, there was some distraction, with my daughter. I didn’t really think too much about it. I think I just took it as destiny, as a ‘try it next year’ again.”

    After crash-marred races that resulted in DNFs in both of his two career Tour appearances, Frank is hoping (in fact, he seems confident) that the third time will be the charm. “After two bad experiences, the third time it’s really going to work out. I really believe in this and that’s how I see it. That’s two bad crashes in my whole career, and they were at the Tour de France. So for sure, I’d say it’s sad, but it could happen anywhere. I’ll just have to try it again and at one point it will work,” he explained.

    Frank and his squad are currently awaiting word from the UCI License Commission regarding their application to join the WorldTour in 2015, but various sources have reported that the team will likely make the cut. Thanks to strong seasons by Frank and Sylvain Chavanel, IAM Cycling was among the best of the Pro Continental squads in the peloton in terms of results this season, but joining the WorldTour ranks is no small step up. A commitment to a full calendar of top-level races, including all three Grand Tours and all five grueling Monuments, is quite an effort for any squad, and many teams have struggled in their first year at the highest level. Frank acknowledges that if IAM Cycling is, in fact, given a WorldTour bid for the 2015 season, it will not be easy. At the moment, he is realistic about what the promotion might mean, but also hopeful that rider development will pay off. “I think it will be a big challenge for sure. It’s a tough schedule now with all these race days, with three Grand Tours. But I think it was good last year to do two Grand Tours, for the team. We still have a lot of young guys and I think for them, they’re developing and next year if we go WorldTour, the team should be ready for it,” he said. “It’s a big challenge, and maybe it takes another one or two years for some guys to adapt but in general I think we have a good squad with all the new guys that are coming at the end here, and we should be ready, if we move up to the WorldTour, to perform well there.”

    IAM Cycling added a few more “young guys” this transfer season, with up-and-comers Clément Chevrier and Sondre Holst Enger among a list of new arrivals that also includes climber Jarlinson Pantano and time trialing talent Stef Clement. On the other hand, the team lost experienced riders Thomas Löfkvist, Johann Tschopp, and Gustav Larsson. Frank knows that the veteran presence will not be easy to replace, but he likes what he sees in the team’s signings. “We lost some experienced guys . . . some pretty good pros. But I’m positive that the young guys will step up, the guys that we’re going to get. We’ll have to see, but I think in general we’ll be at least as good as this year,” he said.

    Mathias Frank’s own plans for 2015 are not yet set in stone, but he has his sights on the one-week stage races (like the Tours de Romandie and Suisse in which he’s had recent success) and especially the Tour de France, with a third run at cycling’s main event as his central target this upcoming season. “Next year, it will be all about the Tour. I really want to go to France in good shape again and try to get a Top 10, so I think we’re going to build the program around the Tour and start from there, but it’s not really decided yet so I can’t really give details. I think it will be less racing than this year for sure, but focusing on the Tour de France,” Frank said. “The Tour is going to be the biggest goal. . . . At the end it’s the Tour de France that really counts.”

    Frank has plenty of reasons to be optimistic about his major goal for next season, given the way he performed at several WorldTour and 2.HC races in 2014. On the other hand, he wouldn’t have to look very hard to find reasons to be cautious about targeting a race that has given him a broken femur and broken thumb in his two career appearances—but Frank seems to have put those unpleasant experiences behind him. That’s good news for IAM Cycling. With a WorldTour promotion (and its requirement to ride all three Grand Tours) a very real possibility, the Swiss team will be counting on their Swiss GC leader to deliver in 2015.

    -Dane Cash

    Photo by Georges Ménager.