On the cobbles of the Forest of Arenberg in the 2011 Paris-Roubaix, Matt Brammeier feels teams know he is a solid pro rider and is looking at signing a new contract for next year by the end of the next week (Photo: Sirotti)
By Gerard Cromwell
Despite a promising start in the colours of the Azerbaijan registered Synergy Baku team, it’s been a year to forget for four time Irish road race champion Matt Brammeier.
A solid performance at the prestigious Tour of Langkawi in Malaysia saw Brammeier finish second on the opening stage.
And his presence in numerous breakaways throughout the 10 day race saw him wear the points leader’s jersey for a time before going home with the king of the mountains classification.
After that however, things began to go downhill.
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A bout of chickenpox at the Tour of Azerbaijan saw Brammeier forced off his bike for a couple of weeks in May and ruled him out of the An Post Ras.
A lingering tooth infection began shortly afterwards and slowly began to eat into his form and health.
Brammeier, in his Synergy Baku national champion’s kit, leads eventual stage winner Duber Quintero (Colombia) as the attacking began from the escape on the opening stage of the Tour of Langkawi back in February.
“It was a bit of a nightmare year to be honest,” admits the former HTC and Omega Pharma Quickstep pro.
“Obviously, Langkawi went well and I was going well for a month or so afterwards but then I got chickenpox in Azerbaijan and couldn’t ride the Rás because I couldn’t touch my bike for two weeks.”
Chickenpox however was the least of Brammeier’s worries when he did eventually get racing again.
After spending the whole summer chasing form, he began to feel drained of energy any time he rode his bike and after a month of trying to treat blisters in his mouth, went to the dentist to find he had a serious tooth infection.
“I didn’t really work out what it was for a while and lost two or three months,” he says.
“I only went to the dentist because I couldn’t get rid of the blisters in my mouth but she told me she’d never seen such a bad infection.
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In the colours of Synery Baku this season; a year Brammeier said was ruined by illness after a strong start.
"It had spread into my bloodstream so it was quite dangerous for a while and I had to stop riding my bike and rest totally for a few weeks.”
“I’d had a root canal on the tooth that was infected so it didn’t have any nerves in it and that’s why I couldn’t feel anything at all.”
Having completed a couple of courses of antibiotics, Brammeier was told he would need surgery but with the national championships coming up at the end of June he deferred the procedure until after then.
“Dragging it on didn’t help either,” he admits.
“They took a couple of teeth out and I had a couple more root canals and God knows how many antibiotics I had to take.
"But as soon as I had the teeth taken out and the infection was gone, I started to feel better, even just doing day to day stuff and could sleep properly at night again.”
Getting his time trial underway at the World Road Championships in Copenhagen in 2011; Brammeier is a quality rider who can still do the business if he gets a good run at racing injury and illness free (Photo: Sirotti)
But with the season almost over and his third division team fighting for last minute places in races, Brammeier never had enough time to return to form and the former WorldTour rider is still negotiating with teams for 2015.
“Of course having a bad year makes it harder to find a team for next season but I’ve had a few years in good teams and done a good job so people know I’m solid.
"I’ve a few options to go to teams next year but the race programmes will be pretty different depending on which team works out.
"Every year it seems to be later and later when people sign contracts but I should have something signed by the end of next week.”
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