Brammeier up the road in January’s Tour Down Under
By Gerard Cromwell
When HTC Highroad folded at the end of last year, a lot of riders were worried about their jobs. Irish road and TT champion Matt Brammeier had been offered a prolonged contract with the prolific American-based squad, but when new sponsorship deals fell through he was no longer sure of a place in the WorldTour for 2012.
As is the case in most sports, the big names like Mark Cavendish and Tony Martin were head hunted first, leaving domestiques like Brammeier to scramble for spots on smaller squads. The lanky Liverpool-born rider had done enough in his first year, however, to warrant the attention of legendary Belgian directeur sportif Patrick Lefevere and he has ended up riding for possibly the strongest squad in professional cycling this year.
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“I didn’t know Matt so well,” admits Omega Pharma Quickstep boss Lefevere.
“But when the rumours started circulating about HTC discontinuing, I started speaking to Brian Holm, Jan Schaffrath and Rolf Aldag about the riders at HTC. And everybody was so positive about this guy.”
“I said, okay, maybe we didn’t see him too much through our eyes, but if so much people speak well about him he has to be a very nice guy or a very good rider.”
Brammeier’s first Omega Pharma Quickstep event was a pre-season training camp where he took on the role of team leader in a survival trial; camping out in the woods and walking through the night, trying to avoid ambush by other teams. It was no coincidence that the tem led by Brammeier won the trial.
“I wasn’t there but I had feedback about the people, and I heard good things about Brammeier,” says Lefevere.
After that camp he selected the Irish champion for the first WorldTour race of the season, the Tour Down Under, despite Brammeier only having had an operation to remove a rod from his femur a few weeks earlier.
“Having this fracture... Museeuw had the same thing in 1992 when he broke his femur in Benidorm and the year after he was winning the Tour of Flanders. So if everything is done properly and he keeps working at it he should not have to worry about this. He’s a top sportsman.”
Omega Pharma Quickstep’s Danish directeur sportif Brian Holm knows first hand what Brammeier can do, having managed him at HTC Highroad last year.
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“Last year with HTC was his first year with the big boys,” says Holm.
“He did some big classics and he surprised me. He was very good, very good at getting into the right position on the Kemmelberg, on Kwaremont. It’s quite difficult to do this in your first time in these races but he’s living in Belgium, he understands the system. Still, he surprised me at how good he was at handling himself and his bike in those kinds of races.”
Holm is well known for his belief that the sign of a strong team is one where every rider can win races and this year he hopes to see Brammeier on the top step of the podium again.
“This year of course is going to be the next step for him. He was riding for the team captains last year and somehow this year he’s going to have to look towards the semi-classics to try and get results for himself. It’s not necessarily about winning but things like top ten in Brabantsje-Pijl, Waregem or something like that.”
“He texted me when he was second at the Tour of Austria stage last year,” says Holm.
“When he was second, for sure, we would have loved for him to win but sometimes you just need the excitement of pedalling for the win. For professional cyclists you have to be close sometimes. You have to be there to fight for the win sometimes. A good professional needs to be close to victory five, six times a year.”
“It’s not necessarily important if you win or not but you have to be in the finale. It’s always very, very stressful when you have to go for the win and he was second. He’s got it in him. Sometimes you can say guys were lucky to be in a good breakaway or whatever but you have to create the luck yourself also to be there. If you lose that feeling, if you have no more ambitions, if you don’t fight for the win a few times a year, then it’s over. You have to quit cycling.”
Last year, Brammeier won both the Irish national road and time trial championships and his time trialling ability did not go unnoticed by his new team.
“I think time trials also suit him and he can develop another bit there too,” says Holm.
“I know he bought a derny a few weeks ago and he has somebody to train with him in Belgium. I think he will make the next step this year. We have the world team time trial championships coming up at the end of the year. This is a new aspect and I think it’s quite interesting for us. We’re going to have a very strong team there and maybe he can do a good ride in the Olympic time trial too.”
Holm knows a thing or two about Irish cycling, having spent a decade living in Cork whilst riding for the Histor Sigma, Tulip Computers and Telekom professional teams.
“My parents lived down in Ballyduff, about 30km from Cork for about ten years. I spent a lot of my holidays there when I was professional. I trained there... on the wrong side of the road,” he laughs.
“It’s a lovely country, very nice people and pretty cheap compared to Denmark. I still love the plum cake from Ireland.”
Brammeier lines up for his Omega Pharma Quickstep team tomorrow at the 1.1 ranked Nokere Koerse in Belgium and then at the Handzame Classic on Friday, another 1.1 ranked semi-classic.
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