Fresh from his win in Belgium yesterday, Matt Brammeier says he's in great shape and ready to get stuck in for Ireland in the elite men's World Road Race Championships on Sunday week.
By Brian Canty
Matt Brammeier has said he is determined to continue the feel-good factor enveloping Irish cycling at present by doing all he can to help deliver a good result at the UCI World Championships in Florence on Sunday week.
The 28-year-old Champion System rider was selected on the four-man Irish team on Tuesday and he showed he’s bang on form by winning a pro kermesse in Belgium yesterday, less than an hour after Sam Bennett won the fifth stage of the Tour of Britain.
“I felt really good and it was nice to win,” he said.
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“It’s nice to be in these races and be the guy who’s making the race and calling the shots. It’s not very often you feel good on the bike, most of the time you get a bit of luck here and there but I’ve been going to these races the last few weeks with really good legs and it was nice to feel good.”
“The break went early, there were seven of us - Stephen Halpin was in it, he was going very well.”
“So we went away on the second lap (16 laps of a 10k loop). We worked well but the group wasn’t super strong, so I did quite a lot of the work and some big pulls to try and get a decent gap.”
“Another group of 15 came across with around 30k to go and we started racing again. And then I was away with two other guys on the last lap and won from a group of three so that was great.”
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“I feel really good and I’m pretty light as well at the moment. Normally when I lose a bit of weight I lose a bit of power as well but I’ve managed to keep my power virtually the same. I just hope my form can continue, but it’s only one more week.”
“I’ll keep ticking over and look after myself. These races I have left, I just go from race to race and recover and that’s about it in terms of preparation.”
The race on Sunday week, he believes, is like no other race on the calendar, and he admitted to being a little nervous when he thinks about it, despite having ridden the Worlds twice in the past.
“It’s massive, it’s the biggest race of the year. Everyone’s really serious and focused and it’s nice to be there in the bunch with the 200 best bike riders in the world and it’s a nice atmosphere.”
“It’s the highlight of the year and a riders’ career as well. Especially this year; it’s going to be good, riding for Dan and also a little bit nerve racking for me because there’s going to be a lot more pressure on us this year to do something.”
“Me and Sam (Bennett), after Philip (Deignan) crashing, have a huge hole to fill and hopefully we can do a good job.”
“I’ve seen videos of the course and I’ve talked to a few people who know the course so I know how it’s going to be. The only thing I don’t know is the first 100k, that’s something maybe we can go and drive on the Friday next week maybe. We’ll need to be well prepared for everything.”
As regards his selection, he said he didn’t lose much sleep worrying about if he’d make it or not, but he’s over the moon that he has.
“To be honest I wanted to ride but as I always said, I’m over getting stressed. I’ve done it enough times already and it doesn’t help anyone.”
“I just trained well and raced well to try and be in good shape – if I was to be picked, then great, and now that I have been, I’m very happy and I’ll do my absolute best for the team. I’m in really good shape, probably the best of the year so I’m looking forward to it.”
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