Matt Brammeier’s first year at ProTeam level will give him plenty of opportunity to learn, with the Irish road race champion being given the green light to ride some of the biggest races in cycling. The Liverpool-born rider has been told his schedule for the first few months of his time with the HTC Highroad team, and will get things underway in the Gulf region on February 6th.
“I’ll go to Majorca on the 16th [of January] for ten days training, then I will do Qatar, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Le Samyn, Three Days of West Flanders, Nokere-Koerse and the Vuelta a Catalunya,” the former An Post Sean Kelly team rider told VeloNation. “After that, the Three Days of De Panne, Scheldeprijs, Brabantse Pijl, Amstel Gold and Liège.
“That’s what we have got planned for now. I think I am going to do the race in Philadelphia as well. Some of that will probably change…I am down as a reserve for Tirreno and Roubaix and Flanders. We will see how I go in the first few races. Obviously Cav [Mark Cavendish] is going to be at Qatar, so we will see how I fit into his little setup.”
At 25 years old, Brammeier is the same age as Cavendish and came up through British Cycling’s system at the same time as him. The two know each other well and while Brammeier earned his contract through his own efforts rather than via Cavendish’s input – he says winning the Irish road race championship was a big part of getting the deal – it has certainly helped his settling-in to know the team’s biggest rider.
Thus far, things have gone very smoothly for Brammeier, and he feels like he has been given some good opportunities. “It’s a very good list of races,” he said. “Allan Peiper looks at the races and sorts out what everyone does. He sent me the programme and asked me two weeks ago what I wanted to do, what I wanted to ride.
“I was a bit overwhelmed really by the programme, all the nice races – it’s not the case that I wouldn’t want to do any of them. It was a win-win situation for me. Everything on the programme is a step up for me, so I can’t lose, really…”
A full Matt Brammeier feature is coming later to VeloNation.