Heinrich Haussler’s colourful language at the finish line of the 4th stage of the Tour of Britain was enough to illustrate his anger. Following in line with the excellent results achieved already by his teammates Matteo Pelucchi, Thomas Löfkvist and Martin Elmiger in the preceding stages, the Australian puncheur came painfully close to victory on the stage that started in Stoke-on-Trent and ended 188 km later in Llanberis; instead Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) won it in a mass sprint to the line. 

Haussler escaped with 10 men in the first hour of racing, and near the end even tried his luck with an attack just before the flamme rouge. But the fury of the pack was not to be denied, and they were able to reel in the strong breakaway group with under a kilometre to race, to set up an opportunity for the sprinters to jostle each other. Nevertheless, IAM Cycling was still well-represented by the Italian Matteo Pelucchi who found his way to the front to secure 4th place to accompany his 5th place from Sunday, in spite of the fact he has suffered from tendonitis since early on. 

Such an injury is often the result of the type of difficult conditions, including cold, wind and rain that have plagued this 10th edition of the event from the start. Such conditions can undermine the morale of the riders who naturally look for all remedies and recipes that could help stave off the elements. 

In this effort Marcel Wyss admits to feeling a certain helplessness. “Personally, I want a bottle of hot tea for refuelling. In any case, after an hour of racing, your rain jacket is soaked through and despite the protection that we put on the shoes, you are ice cold throughout your body. We should have a little more fat for protection and would love to have the sun come out again. I do not like to have these sorts of extremes, just like when we had 45° at the Tour of Portugal, and now we are dealing with 7-8° at the Tour of Britain. But of course we do not really have a choice.  We must deal with it.” 

IAM Cycling team mangers Kjell Carlström and Rubens Bertogliati understand their riders’ feelings. “We attach an enormous importance to keeping their hands and feet protected. We put thicker socks on and have three layers of protection for the shoes. But it is still not always enough. Frankly, it is not the same for everybody because some guys are much better at sustaining in extreme cold and some guys are better supporting the excessive heat.”