Two grand tours, with the Tour de France a priority, a newly designed jersey and 25 riders ready to exceed the team’s 12 victories in 2013, IAM Cycling is ambitious now that the team is beginning its second season in the peloton.

Over two hundred people heard this message in person at the official presentation for the Pro Continental team just before the group departs for its first training camp scheduled to take place until January 22nd in Palma de Mallorca. In the convention room of one of the largest hotels in Geneva, Michel Thétaz, founder of IAM Cycling and CEO of IAM SA (IAM Investment Funds), along with Serge Beucherie, the team sports manager, endeavoured to outline the upcoming season and express their optimism for the future particularly in view of the results they obtained in 2013 and the high quality of the recruits they succeeded in signing for 2014. The Master of Ceremonies, Daniel Mangeas, the well-known voice of the Tour de France, then presented the four directeurs sportif Marcello Albasini, Rubens Bertogliati, Kjell Carlström and Eddy Seigneur as well as the 25 riders who will spend the 2014 year under contract to IAM Cycling.

The Tour de France as the first priority

With his well-renowned enthusiasm, Michel Thétaz welcomed the successful interplay between the values represented and promoted by IAM Funds and the panache with which IAM Cycling races throughout the season.  “Patience, discipline, judgment and vision have been my watchwords for over 20 years. I vowed to myself that I would take the time to launch this cycling team properly.  And today I am very proud to see that my personal values are so well advocated by the riders and all the staff.  Twelve victories in our first year provide solid proof.

“In addition to that, the messages of support and congratulations that we receive only confirm that we are on the right path. And we will never deviate from so successful of a road. Our second season looks very promising. We in fact wish to speed up the process a little, and as the only Swiss professional cycling team, we hope to promote our values at even higher levels in all the races we have on our program. With that in mind, in addition to the ten Swiss riders we have under contract, we will extend this ‘Swiss reach’ to the sponsorship of the IAM Junior Challenge. As we can no lay claim to being the new kids on the block, our goals will be higher and broader than they were in the first year. We have real ambitions for the spring classics, but we also will strive to take part in one or even two grand tours, of which the Tour de France is the main priority. We have the means to achieve such success. With a staff of 60 people, including 25 riders, we are approaching the level of a World Tour team.”

Quality recruitment

For his part, Serge Beucherie stressed the importance of recruiting the right riders to implement the 2014 strategy. “To confirm our results from 2013, which means we need go a step further, it was important to target our new additions carefully. To this end, we recruited Sylvain Chavanel, Roger Kluge and Vincente Reynes for our classics campaign. We believe we can play to win big considering the quality of the staff that we have involved for these one-day classics. The same goes for our stage race ambitions with the arrivals of Mathias Frank and Jérôme Pineau, the latter of whom brings a rich knowledge of how best to ride grand tours.” 

Beucherie also highlighted the absence of a single leader within the team. “We do not claim that we have the winner of the Tour de France in our ranks. But we do have a healthy situation where experienced guys like Elmiger, Hinault and Tschopp will be invaluable support for Matthias Brändle, Sébastien Reichenbach and Marcel Wyss. We also believe in adding complementary strengths in our riders, as the teaming of Sylvain Chavanel and Heinrich Haussler racing the classics together will display. They are two great champions who respect and appreciate the other. They will raise the IAM Cycling colors high when combining their talents racing the classics. Since each knows the other’s strengths, there will be no conflict.”