After a recent break from racing, Matt Brammeier sounds well prepared and ready for action at the Tour of California which starts on Sunday
By Brian Canty
Three-time national road race champion Matt Brammeier is putting the final touches on preparations for one of his – and his Champions Systems team’s – biggest goals of the season, the Amgen Tour of California.
The eight-day, 750 mile, race kicks off this Sunday in the town of Escondido in San Diego County and finishes the following Sunday in Santa Rosa.
Brammeier has been in California for the past month logging what he said were some of his best ever training miles and he’s optimistic – and motivated – to do well.
“I’ve been out here now for four weeks. I came out straight after the Belgian classics to do some training and chill out for a little bit so I’m looking forward to getting going and getting racing again.”
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“I’ve been a few weeks away from racing so I’m pretty keen to get going and the team is motivated. Obviously the race is huge for us having American sponsors so it’s a big a goal.”
Since he moved from OmegaPharma-Quick Step last winter, his role has changed dramatically and his function in his current team is a markedly different one; get in the breaks.
“My plan here will be to just race with as much aggression as possible and try to get into the breaks and just see what comes with that. A lot is out of my control, (depending on) what the other teams are going to do; it’s going to be a pretty controlled race,” he explained.
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“It’s already quite hard after the second day and the GC is going to be; like the first 10 guys will be already a couple of minutes clear after the second day so it will be a controlled race. But you never know what can happen. I just have to be aggressive and motivated and see what I can take from it,” he added.
“Training has been going really well, probably some of the best training I’ve ever done. I’m healthy, I feel good and fit and hitting some good numbers on the climbs and I’m pretty light as well so add that up and I should be okay. But you never really know until you’re out there in the race so we’ll know after a day or two.”
The change to Champions Systems is one he’s enjoying but took some getting used to. In the Belgian Classics he was active most days and came out of those in a good place.
“I was pretty happy to be honest. I got stuck in and I started feeling good towards the end of the Classics, I was getting into the breaks. I just had to adjust my mind a bit. It took me a while to get used to riding for myself, trying to be as aggressive as possible for 50k (to get into a break). I’ve been thinking about my own goals more. If I keep racing like that over the next few months and even into next year then something will fall into place for me one of the days.”
“The biggest change was trying to adjust to this style of racing and not having to be pulling on the front all day for someone else and not worrying about myself as much so that’s taken a while but I’m enjoying it so far.”
And with the Worlds in Florence not too far away, he said he’d dearly love to be there.
“Definitely. Especially after seeing how well Dan (Martin) has been going the last few weeks. It’s definitely a big goal for every Irish cyclist to try and get there and be in good shape to help him because I think he’s in with a real chance on that course.”
“I definitely have thought about it and I want to be fit at that time of year anyway because I’ll probably be going to Asia then for some more racing so it’ll be a goal of mine to be in pretty good shape then anyway. I’m not going to get stressed about it though.”
