Back in the game: Six months after an horrific crash at the Tour of Utah, Matt Brammeier is back and ready for battle. The Irishman is part of a strong Dimension Data team for two 1.1-ranked races in Majorca on Thursday and Friday as well as the Dubai Tour (2.HC) which gets underway tomorrow week.
By Brian Canty
Matt Brammeier will race for the first time since his horror crash at the Tour of Utah last year when he goes to the line as part of the Dimension Data squad for Thursday's Trofeo Felanitx and Friday's Trofeo Port de Pollenca Andratx in Majorca.
The four-time Irish national road race champion suffered three rib fractures on both sides, a punctured lung as well as broken sacral and pelvic bones when he collided with a moving car while on a sharp descent during stage six of the American stage race last August.
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Months of painstaking rehabilitation, specialist consultations and hours in the gym and road followed but the 30-year old is back and ready for battle once again.
“I’m excited to get going and not really nervous at all,” he said about the six-month lay-off.
“I’ve been training well and everything is going good.
“It’s been the longest chunk of time I haven’t been racing since I started cycling so I’m just looking forward to getting stuck in again.”
The optimist in Brammeier points to the fact it was a good time to be injured, given he didn’t miss as much racing as he would have had the crash happened in April.
Not that that made the recovery any easier.
“I’m not sure how my condition is going to be but the first few races I haven’t any really important targets. It’s all about building for the Classics for me.
Brammeier in his hospital bed in the US last summer. It sounds like he has bounced back very well.
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“I did some strength tests with the physio a few weeks ago and it was 50-50 balance on both sides on the bike and I don’t feel any imbalances so that’s positive.
“The first eight weeks of rehab was pretty full-on though; every day with the physio.
“It was tough because I just wanted to be on my bike but I made that mistake of coming back too early before and developed bad habits.
“I wanted to make sure everything was 100% before I came back and it hasn’t been too bad.
“The best thing about the accident was there was no panic at all from the team; I had so much time to get back and do it all properly and not rush anything.”
Brammeier outlined a pretty hectic early season schedule which features many of the big World Tour events.
“At the moment I’m doing Majorca, the Dubai Tour (February 3-6), Ruta del Sol (February 17-21), Paris Nice (March 6-13) and onto the Classics.
“We’re not doing any semi-Classics, just all the big World Tour races.
“We’ve decided to really put all the eggs in one basket and try to get a win for Eddie (Boasson Hagen).
“I’m motivated and I feel like I’m in the Classics squad so just looking forward to getting stuck in.
“Looking at Eddie this year and the shape he’s in, he’ll be motivated as hell after breaking his collar bone last year so it’d be great to be part of a win.”
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