During his career, Michael Schär has earned a reputation as an excellent helper.. But now the 28-year-old Swiss shows that he is also in a position to win races. After he celebrated his first victory in the pros in 2013 at the Swiss Championships, he added another one to his palmares in 2014 when he won a stage of the Tour of Utah (catgory 2.1), his first victory in a UCI race.

"I am generally quite happy with my season," Schär told radsport-news.com. Already the start of the season was successful as Schär finished third in a stage of the Tour of Qatar and he hinted that he would again be an important help for his captains in the classics.

And that's how it was. After good performances in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix Schär's delivered a great performance at the Amstel Gold Race. "There, I had to ride on the front of the peloton for more than 200 kilometers to put Philippe Gilbert in a positionto win. This was certainly one of my best days of the season," Schär says. His work was rewarded as the Belgian ended up winning the race.

Another highlight was in July when the Tour de France was on the schedule. Schär should support Tejay van Garderen in his attack on the podium. "This effort, however, was hampeted by a few crashes," said Schär who surprised himself in the mountain stages. "There, I often rode with the top 30 over the mountains and so I could do more important support services," added the BMC rider who has mostly been known for his skills on the flats.

In the second half of the season he received his freedom at the races in the United States and he knew how to exploit them. He took the victory in Utah after a 200-kilometer break - he did the last 50 on his own. He had to fight hard for the success. 

"Unfortunately I had to change my cycling shoes in the morning before that stage. The position of the cleats on the new shoes was not exactly the same, so towards the end of the race I got cramps. It was an incredible fight to make it to the finish line. Fortunately, I managed it with the very narrow margin over the peloton," said Schär who just had 2 seconds at the finish.

The Swiss also made good performances in the subsequent USA Pro Challenge (cat. 2.HC) where he was a third and a seventh in stages.

Schär will start the next season starts at the Tour Down Under and the Cadel Evans Classic in Australia, the farewell race of the longtime BMC captain. Then he will prepare for the classics. 

"With Greg van Avermaet, I think we have a strong leader to win a big race," said Schär, who also hopes to be at the Tour de France again. "Maybe I can then go for a stage win,"added Schär who has discovered the joy of victory.