Yesterday Mathias Frank returned to competition in the small Swiss one-day race Tour du Jura. The Swiss finished 11th which came as a pleasant surprise for his IAM team.

Though last year IAM Cycling celebrated a victory at the Tour du Jura thanks to Matthias Brändle, the Swiss Pro Continental team was unable to repeat the success in 2014.  Instead Kevin Ledanois (Bretagne Séché – Environnement) won the sprint out of a breakaway, against the final three of his companions.  The best representative for IAM Cycling ended up being Mathias Frank, who finished 11th, 28 seconds behind the winner, in spite of the fact that this was his first race since breaking his leg in the Tour de France. 

Directeur sportif for IAM Cycling Marcello Albasini was full of praise for Frank. 

“I’m surprised at just how strong Mathias already is.  He has already found a good form after six weeks of recovering from his injury.  But in the finale, it was just a bit too much to keep up with the best of the breakaway. 

"I saw good things from our riders, however, and this is encouraging in view of the coming races.  I also have to highlight the performance of Roger Kluge.  He performed a number of blocking tactics to delay reducing the 2’30” deficit to the breakaway. 

"As for the young guys, they came to learn and they paid for their escape attempts in the first forty kilometers.  But that’s the way the business goes.”