At the end of the first stage of the World Ports Classic, sports director Eddy Seigneur had some harsh words for his team. Yesterday the team bounced back with a solid showing to take a top 10 result for sprinter Matteo Pelucchi.

The World Ports Classic finished with a stage victory by Ramon Sinkeldam (Giant Shimano) while Théo Bos (Belkin) took the overall win after the second stage between the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam.  Though IAM Cycling suffered a collective bad day on Saturday, the squad succeeded in raising its head nicely on Sunday. 

The Swiss Pro Continental team worked hard in the finale, helping Matteo Pelucchi to find a way into the top 10 (9th place).  Eddy Seigneur, the team’s directeur sportif, appreciated this show of pride and class. 

“We discussed our failure last night.  It was important to analyze what went wrong in order not to repeat the same mistakes.  In fact, there had been a misunderstanding and even bad feelings among the riders.  But today, everything was forgotten and the guys rode very well together. 

"In the end, we managed to maintain our position.  The work of Aregger, Klemme, Hollenstein, Ista, Brändle and Kluge allowed Matteo to be well placed with a ringside seat for the sprint.  Unfortunately, he was not able to grab the bouquet for the team and was at pains to apologize to his teammates.  A sprint is always a crap-shoot, and he was not able to smile with a victory in this stage.”