After spending a week in Catalonia, or getting familiar with the cobbles in Belgium, a portion of the peloton is off again to the Iberian Peninsula for the Tour of the Basque Country.  Renowned for being very demanding, this is a race feared by the pack. 

“This is a very hard race because of the terrain, but also because of the weather,” directeur sportif Kjell Carlström explained.  “In addition to the frequent showers that you get in this region this time of year, it can often be very cold.  And to add to the difficulty, the roads are winding and narrow.” 

Yet in spite, or maybe because of how demanding this race is for the riders, it remains an important opportunity to hone form, and represents a key step on their preparation for future races. 

“If a rider is looking great, or even just good at the Tour of the Basque Country, that usually is an excellent signal that he is ready for the Ardennes classics,” Carlström confirmed.
 
The Swiss IAM Cycling team will be heading to Spain with definite ambitions and realistic goals. 

“It is a WorldTour race, so it is important to do well,” Carlström, himself a former racer, explained.  “This level of competition allows us to see where our level is in relation to our competitors at this point in our preparation.  For the IAM Cycling team, we are coming to this race with the specific goal to do well as a team, riding together and working well as a team. 

"As far as some of the individual riders in the line-up, we always have high hopes for Sébastien Reichenbach, who should feel comfortable on this terrain which is suited to his strengths.  But we’ll have to wait and see how his recovery has progressed after his little accident last week.  He suffered a hematoma on his right kneecap, so we’ll have to see what he can do and whether his knee problem has been resolved. 

"But we also have other cards to play, such as Jérôme Coppel, who is a very interesting rider for the mountains.  We will be able to be active on several different terrains with our group, which is pretty homogeneous by now.”