For a long time, the Tour de France preparation was rather sluggish for Mathias Frank (IAM). In the spring the Swiss was set back by crashes, injuries and illnesses and so his best result until the beginning of June was a seventh place in the time trial at the Critérium International.

Frank showed a first sign of form by finishing third in the Swiss Championships after he had had another setback at the Criterium du Dauphine where the IAM captain had to abandon with a sinus infection. "Nothing really worked for me in the spring," Frank tells radsport-news.com.

However, the poor prerparation would finally end well for the 29-year-old as finished the Tour de France with a great 8th place. "Thus I have achieved my big goal because I wanted to be in the top 10 in the Tour. So of course I'm very, very pleased, "said the former BMC rider who reached Paris for the first time in his third attempt after he had previously been forced out of the race due to crashes.

"The three-week race was definitely also an unknown. It gives me extra motivation that it went so well,” says Frank who was also in good form at the Arctic Race of Norway in August where he finished fifth. "After that, the hard Tour preparation made me very tired," he explains the lack of top resilts.

In 2016, Frank wants to confirm his performance in the Tour, but he also wants to show himself a bit earlier. "I want to combine my good spring of 2014 and the good Tour of 2015," he says. The other highlights will be the Tour de Suisse and the Tour de Romandie. "And I also have the Olympic Games in Rio on my mind," Frank says about his third year at IAM.