After his 8th place in last year's race, Mathias Frank will again lead IAM in the Tour de France.

“IAM Cycling has confidence in Mathias Frank to perform well in the general, but the team will prioritize to get a stage win in the Tour de France,” commented Rik Verbrugghe, sports manager for the only Swiss professional team racing at the World Tour level, when discussing the Tour de France.

Rik Verbrugghe continued: “The sports management at IAM Cycling has attempted to bring together the best team possible for the most important race of the season.  Considering our experience, we tried to balance our strengths for three weeks of truth.”

6 different nationalities will be represented in the Swiss team for La Grande Boucle.  Three Swiss, two Belgians, one Colombian, one Dutch, one Norwegian and one French will be on the start line in Mont Saint-Michel on Saturday, July 2nd.

Jarlinson Pantano, Jerome Coppel and Stef Clement will be on hand to support Frank in the mountains. Dries Devenyns, Oliver Naesen, Martin Elmiger and Reto Hollenstein can go for breakaways in some of the lumpier stages while Sondre Holst Enger is likely to take his chance in the sprints.

IAM Cycling has devised a fairly original travel plan for its riders when they are on their way to the team hotel in the department of La Manche.  After arriving via airplane in Paris, they will transfer by bus to Caen.  There the nine riders on the Swiss team will mount their bicycles and have a training ride the rest of the way to Saint-Lô.

Line-up

Jérôme Coppel (Fr)

Stef Clement (Ned)

Dries Devenyns (Bel)

Martin Elmiger (S)

Mathias Frank (S)

Reto Hollenstein (S)

Sondre Holst Enger (Nor)

Oliver Naesen (Bel)

Jarlinson Pantano (Col)