David Tanner is hoping an early end to season 2015 can be a blessing in disguise for next year with a settled off-season allowing the refreshed Australian to hit the ground running in his second year with IAM Cycling. Tanner crashed out of the Vuelta a Espana on stage 2, prematurely ending his season but with his contract extended with IAM Cycling into 2016 he has been able to "back into things slowly and take things a little more calmly" compared to previous years.
Tanner explained to Cyclingnews that signing his contract extension in June let him focus on racing which paid dividends at the Tour of Austria where he took his first win in five seasons.
"This is the first year, because owner Michel [Thetáz] only does one-year contracts, that I'd signed before the Tour," Tanner said from his base in Monaco. "Funnily enough, I signed at the Dauphiné and two-three weeks later I was on some of my best form in the last five years. I won a stage at the Tour of Austria and my numbers were the best they've ever been. Having that stress of your back helps with your head and just being more relaxed and getting down to the job, not worrying about the future holds."
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Having been on IAM Cycling's long list for the Tour de France, Tanner explained he was "pretty disappointed" to miss out on making his debut at the French Grand Tour but bounced back with a strong performance in Austria. Having animated De Brabantse Pijl and Amstel Gold, two of his favourite races of the season, but missed out on a result the stage win was sweet relief.
"I thought it was going to do the Tour and I only found out a week or two before so I said 'ok I have this awesome form, send me to Austria' otherwise it would have been a waste of two months hard work," he said. "Maybe if I hadn't agreed [contract extension] before Austria then maybe I wouldn't have gone in calm and having a good head. You can always ask the 'what if' questions but at the end of the day I am happy with how it all panned out.
"As a team we rode really well that week with some young guys, some neo-pros and it was just a really, really good environment to be in Austria that week for some reason," he said of the race that also saw teammate Sondre Holst Enger claim stage 1 honours.
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