Brammeier in action in the World Champs TT, Copenhagen 2011 (Photo: Gary McIlroy)
Irish road race and TT champion, Matt Brammeier is recovering well from a leg operation and believes he can have his best season ever in 2012.
Fresh from a training camp in Spain with his new Omega Pharma-Quickstep team, Brammeier told stickybottle he feels in good shape and is looking forward to the task ahead.
“I'm just back from a training camp in Calpe in Spain. I did some good hours and got to know everyone at the team pretty good too.”
He said while still in recovery mode after having had a pin removed from his left femur just after the season ended, he will the start the New Year with the Tour Down Under in Australia next month.
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However, the main focus for him for the first portion of the year will be a good campaign in the spring classics.
“I'm feeling OK on the bike but lacking a little bit of strength after my operation. I'm working hard and hope to be good enough to help the team at the Tour Down Under. I'm not expecting to be flying already, but to be honest I don't want to be. Flanders is still four months away don't forget.”
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“After the Tour Down Under I’ll fly straight to Majorca for a few days of rest, recuperation and training before flying out to the Tour of Qatar. After that it’s a steady build-up to the classics with a few preparation races in early March. I have some work to do but I'm well on my way for my best season ever.”
Brammeier will start the eight-day Tour Down Under on January 15th, where Belgian and German sprinters Gert Steegmans and Gerald Ciolek are likely to be the designated team leaders for the first UCI race of the year.
Also on the team will be Andy Fenn, the British rider who took bronze in the U23 World Championships in Copenhagen in September when he was still contracted to the An Post-Sean Kelly team.
Fenn and Brammeier - who also rode for the An Posts before securing a contract for last season with the now defunct HTC-Highroad team - will be reunited with the Belgian-Irish squad early in the season, with Sean Kelly’s charges likely to get an invite to the Tour of Qatar.
The coming season is an important one for Brammeier, with an Olympic place a real possibility for him on the road and in the TT if he rides to expectations. He will be in competition with Dan Martin, Nicolas Roche, Philip Deignan and David McCann for Ireland’s three road places and one TT spot for London.
It will be interesting to see how he performs without the pin in his leg, the result of a career-threatening crash four years ago that left him with two broken legs after being hit by a lorry.
The 26-year-old has experienced considerable discomfort in his leg at times, particularly in cold and wet conditions.
Despite his national title-winning TT ride in Ireland last summer and other good rides against the clock with HTC-Highroad last season, he also feels his TT position has been hampered in recent years by the titanium pins and bolts he has just had removed in a private clinic in Germany.
