Summer is knocking at the door bring along a heat wave to welcome the Tour de France that kicks off at the end of this week.  Saturday, July 4th, the second Grand Tour of the calendar, marked by the hunt for the yellow jersey, begins with a typically crazy atmosphere and a 13.8 kilometer individual time trial through the streets of Utrecht in the Netherlands.  

After the IAM Cycling team savored its first invitation by the Amaury Sport Organisation to La Grande Boucle last year, this time they are basking in their WorldTour status by sending their nine ambitious riders ready to make their mark beginning with Le Grand Départ.  Having joined the pro peloton in January of 2013, IAM Cycling, which is the only professional team from Switzerland, intends to climb the ladder gradually and prove its merits as a member of the elite world of professional cycling. 

Happy with the early part of the season where his riders have earned no fewer than 30 podium places, Michel Thétaz, the founder of IAM Cycling and the CEO of IAM Funds, is delighted to be taking part in another tour around France.  Following the national championships, Thétaz is keen to set the tone regarding his expectations:

“Since this is our second participation in the Tour, we will try to correct and erase the mistakes and imperfections of our previous attempt.  First, we will try to spread the risk a little more.  Last year, when Mathias Frank, our leader, crashed heavily and had to withdraw from the race, we were caught off guard and forced to develop a new strategy.  This will not be the case this year. 

"After long discussion with the team management, we decided not to take a sprinter, particularly because there are not that many stages that are guaranteed to end in a mass sprint.  Instead, we are focusing on the opportunists who could go for the stage victories from a breakaway.  We are also relying on climbers like Pantano, Coppel, and Wyss, who depending on circumstances, will also be given their chances to shine.  Then if we can enter the top-10 with Mathias Frank when we arrive on the Champs-Elysées that will be a great success. 

"We’ll work together so that we can target stages where we will search for victories.  Always opportunistic, we will also be aiming for the top-5 in the team time trial particularly because we have exceptional riders for this discipline.  And who knows whether we will toss in a few surprises at Saturday’s time trial.  With Mathias Brändle in top form, we can even hope to be in the yellow jersey at Sunday morning’s start in Utrecht.”

Tour de France (Saturday, July 4th to Sunday, July 26th)

Matthias Brändle (Aut)

Sylvain Chavanel (Fr)

Stef Clement (Ned)

Jérôme Coppel (Fr)

Martin Elmiger (S)

Mathias Frank (S)

Reto Hollenstein (S)

Jarlinson Pantano (Col)

Marcel Wyss (S)