Matt Brammeier (MTN-Qhubeka) set himself two goals for his debut Tour of Flanders, make it into the break and take the intermediate sprint at kilometre 34. The Irishman nailed both of his objectives and was rewarded handsomely for his endeavours with his weight in Steene Molen beer - much to the delight of his teammates. The time out front also gave him an opportunity to soak up the atmosphere of one of his favourite races, in his adopted home of Belgium.
“It couldn’t have gone better really my objective of the day was to get in the breakaway and put everything into it. I did that and I managed to get into it so I was pretty happy,” Brammeier told Cyclingnews at the finish.
“It was awesome. I was actually overwhelmed by the amount of support I had out there. There was a lot of Irish and British support, and also a lot of Belgians and locals shouting support for me, so that was really nice. It was the whole route and the whole day, and the roads were just lined with people. It was insane, I think it was one of the best days of my life on a bike.”
ADVERTISEMENT
After a Twitter exchange with former rider Daniel Lloyd on the eve of Flanders, Brammeier put a little reminder of the intermediate sprint with a piece of sticky tape placed on his handlebars with a hand-drawn pint of beer on it. The little incentive seemed to do the trick and he was the first rider to pass through the town of Sint-Eloois-Winkel at the 34-kilometre mark.
“We had a little bit of a joke last night when we saw it and once I was in the break I had to win it or otherwise the guys would have killed me if I didn’t,” he said.
The sprint should earn him about 74 kilos of beer, although he joked with Cyclingnews that he had taken on around six litres of water at the finish, which will be awarded to him at Scheldeprijs on Wednesday.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1DVzVaB
No comments:
Post a Comment