IAM have lost their Tour de France captain as Mathias Frank sustained a broken femur in the first crash on the finishing straight in stage 7 of the race. The Swiss will travel to Switzerland where he will undergo surgery tomorrow.

IAM Cycling ran hot and cold on the 7th stage of the Tour de France. Though Sylvain Chavanel took a good 8th place and Martin Elmiger was voted the most combative rider after powering a break for more than 200 kilometers, IAM Cycling suffered the loss of Mathias Frank who ended his day in the hospital.  The 27 year old Frank fell in the last corner, just 800 meters from the finish along with several other riders.  Severely wounded in his left hip, the IAM Cycling leader still found the courage to get up and finish the stage before being shown to the Tour de France mobile medical clinic and then to the CHUR in Nancy.
 
The hospital scanner detected the fracture in the left proximal femur.  Mathias Frank, accompanied by Grégory Ornon, the team’s doctor, Michel Thétaz, the founder of IAM Cycling and CEO of IAMFUNDS.CH as well as Serge Beucherie, the manager sportif, immediately left for Geneva in order to undergo surgery Saturday morning.