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Mathias Frank and Thomas Frei sandwich Cancellara on the podium at Swiss
Nationals

With three riders in the top ten and a fourth in the top 12, BMC can be very
satisfied with their performance at the Swiss National Road Race
Championships in Nyon. In fact, with their riders taking 2nd and 3rd place,
a double podium finish is definitely a top result for this young team.

However, once again victory eluded the young riders from BMC, finding
Mathias Frank chalking up his second 2nd place finish for this year’s
championships after he missed winning the time trial by just two seconds on
Wednesday. Nevertheless, after taking 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 12th in the road
race, BMC can certainly be proud of their team work for the day.

Another strong team showing

“Taking 2nd and 3rd is an accomplishment for this team, especially seeing
how strong Cancellara is at the moment,” Directeur Sportif John Lelangue
said. “We knew that the race tactics would be to ride with all the major
attacks and we succeeded in doing that.” With 8 riders, BMC had the luxury
of multiple cards to play meaning that they were able to place three strong
riders in what would become the day’s winning breakaway. “Several splinter
attack groups joined together to form a break of about 18 riders, and we had
three guys among them,” Lelangue said. “Though Cancellara was in the front
group too, most of the other favourites missed the move.” With Mathias
Frank, Thomas Frei and Florian Stalder in the group of 18, BMC could feel
confident in committing to the success of the breakaway.

Working the break

“Having three of us in that break was very good for the team,” Frank
explained. “When Cancellara attacked with a couple laps to go, only Thomas
and I were able to go with him.” While his teammates were trading pulls
with Cancellara, Florian Stalder hung back with the second group to control
any attempts to bridge up to the leading three. “Florian rode in the
second group which had about four riders, and he completely controlled them
which meant that no one was going to be able to catch Frank, Frei and
Cancellara,” Lelangue explained. Further back in the main peloton, the
remaining BMC riders were also making their presence felt. “With four laps
to go, I attacked the main bunch to try and bridge up to the breakaway,”
out-going Swiss Champion Markus Zberg described. “Cancellara knew I was
making the move and chose to punch the break at that point which meant that
I wasn’t able to make the connection; but Mathias and Thomas did an amazing
job staying with Cancellara.” “The
teamwork was just amazing today,” Frank reiterated. “Florian did a great
job controlling the situation behind us and the guys in the pack were also
not sleeping but were riding hard to control the race.”

Two silvers and one bronze for the week

For John Lelangue perhaps the most encouraging aspect of this week’s
Nationals results is that the podium positions BMC has won have come
courtesy of some of their youngest riders. “These two young guns, Mathias
and Thomas, are part of our new generation and I am really happy to see them
and guys like Florian doing such a good job this week at Swiss Nationals,”
Lelangue explained. “We have no regrets about today since we were beaten by
one of the best, and with such good teamwork there is no way we can be
disappointed with this result even if it means we are losing the jersey for
the rest of the year.” For his part, Mathias Frank can look forward to
trading up his medal colour in the coming years. “I still have time,” Frank
said. “I have some silver medals to show for my efforts now, but it would
be nice to win the jersey sometime in the future.”