Matt Brammeier gets rid of some of his kit as he settles in for a long breakaway ride in Switzerland where he looked by far the strongest and most willing.
Matt Brammeier may have emerged from stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse empty handed today, but the Dimension Data man underlined his form ahead of the National Championships next week.
Escaping in the early breakaway shortly after the start of the 193km race from Rheinfelden to Champagne, the Irishman and his co-conspirators would ride out front almost all day.
However, while early escapes normally require their advantaged over the peloton to grow wildly if they are to stand any hope of staying clear, the rest of the field was not feeling generous.
And while the breakaway worked very well together to establish their lead and then try to maintain it, there was never more than five minutes between the leaders and the bunch.
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It meant when the chase behind became properly organised the breakaway men were really up against it.
In that move with four-time Irish road race champion Brammeier were: Nick van der Lijke (Roompot-Oranje Peloton), Jérémy Maison (FDJ) and Lukas Jaun (Team Roth).
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Max Richeze wins from team mate Fernando Gaviria, with race leader Sagan in 3rd place.
But the Tinkoff team of race leader Peter Sagan was looking to keep him on top and hoping he could take a third stage win a row, while Etixx-QuickStep was also looking to have an impact on the stage.
And so they both worked to ensure the breakaway men were not let ride away with it.
And when a time check with 45km remaining showed the gap had fallen to two minutes – it always looked like the game was up for the quartet out front.
However, they rode extremely hard to stay clear and were not caught until just inside the 5km to go point, with Brammeier looking by far the most capable in the escape.
In the end it came down to a bunch sprint, with Etixx-Quickstep’s work rewarded when Max Richeze won from team mate Fernando Gaviria, with race leader Sagan in 3rd place.
Richeze was supposed to be leading out Gaviria, who made no effort to come past his team mate when he knew the lead out man had done enough to win himself.
Brammeier would finish 131st, some 1:46 down after his efforts all day.
And while he would have loved a shot at stage glory and may well have pulled that off had the breakaway stayed away, he is in ominous form ahead of the championships in Kilcullen on Sunday week.
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