Going into the Tour du Limousin, IAM knew that they faced an uphill battle as most of their riders were making a return to competition after a post-Tour break. After the opening stage, the team has lost all its GC options and now hopes to salvage the race by claiming a stage win.

IAM Cycling dove into the deep end of the pool during the first stage of the Tour du Limousin.  Björn Leukemans (Wanty Groupe Gobert) won the day in Brive after a long breakaway which included nineteen other riders, though no IAM Cycling member managed to slip into the group. 

Heinrich Haussler and Sébastien Reichenbach arrived with the main pack 6’54” after the winner.  Sylvain Chavanel, who suffered a minor crash during the stage, finished alongside Jérôme Pineau 10’37’’ behind.  Kevyn Ista and the stagiaire Claudio Imhof proved to be even more delayed. 
 
Eddy Seigneur, one of the directeurs sportifs along with Kjell Carlström, was blunt when assessing the day’s results. 

“This week promises to be complicated.  Now we can have only stage victories as a goal.  This edition of the Tour du Limousin will end up being a race of recovery for many of our riders, but it is a race that is never forgiving of weakness. 

"For our part, we are left without Dominic Klemme who has been called up at the last minute to replace the injured Patrick Schelling on the Vuelta squad.  And the guys today just didn’t find the opening. 

"Sylvain Chavanel ended up on the pavement with three other guys after slipping on some gravel, but managed to reach the finish without any problems.  All the same, I hope that we will have some better days."