Netting a superb tenth in Sunday’s prologue of the Tour de Qatar is an important moment in the career of the Irish road race champion Matt Brammeier. Aside from being one of his best-ever results, the 25 year old has officially began his time racing with the HTC Highroad team by going better than 116 others and finishing just nine seconds behind the winner Lars Boom of Rabobank.
Lining out in the Tour of Qatar represents his step-up to the UCI ProTeam level after 2009 and 2010 seasons spent racing with the An Post M. Donnelly Grant Thornton Sean Kelly Continental team.
Prior to ending the day as the highest-placed HTC Highroad rider, he had said that he was unsure as to what would be required of him in the race. “I don’t have a specific role laid out as yet, but we have a pretty strong team here. We’ll see how things are after the time trial and make a plan then,” he told VeloNation on Saturday. “But for sure Cav [Mark Cavendish] will be up for winning something. First prize is a Porsche Cayenne, so we will all be full gas!”
Cavendish crashed in the prologue and finished the day last overall, one minute 15 seconds back. However Mark Renshaw was a solid twelfth in the prologue and, as a strong sprinter, the team’s GC hopes will most likely shift to his shoulders. Brammeier too will be an option for the overall, even if he isn't as quick in the final 200 metres. Cavendish may be required to work for them but could soften the blow of his crash by targeting a stage win later in the event.
Brammeier spoke to VeloNation on Saturday from the riders’ plush Ritz Carlton Hotel in Doha. He said that he felt a bit ‘stiff and sore’ after the travelling, but that it is something that he always feels after long trips. It’s most likely a legacy of a particularly severe crash in November 2007, when he was run over by a truck.
Still, stiffness aside, he said that he was hoping to show well over the six day race. “Things are going good,” he said. “I had a good camp in Majorca before coming here; I did some good, intense training there and put in some big hours, so hopefully I’ll be in good shape.”
Tenth in the prologue shows that he is indeed in superb form, and will give him confidence for the days ahead, and the season in general. But for those who watched his performances last season, there was already a feeling that he would fare well in stepping up to a new level.
Making a big impression:
Brammeier has a background of decent performances, including eighth in the 2010 Mi-Aout en Bretonne and victory in the 2007 British under 23 time trial championship, but it was his ride last June 27th which clearly showed what he could do. He was the first to attack in the Irish road race championships, was involved in all the major moves and, 150 kilometres later, was still there at the end, fighting it out with Nicolas Roche for the win.
In truth, while he had ridden strongly throughout, almost everyone present expected Roche to take his second successive victory in the race. The Ag2r La Mondiale rider had a strong early season and while an injury experienced at the Tour de Romandie had sidelined him for several weeks, he had shown well in the Tour de Suisse. He was also one week away from starting his second Tour de France (where he would finish 15th overall), and so the assumption was that he would get the edge over his rival.
Instead, it was Brammeier who triumphed. He jumped hard in the finishing straight and Roche simply couldn’t reel him in. He was very disappointed afterwards, but also complimented Brammeier. “Matt was very strong…I tried to attack him a few times coming to the finish but couldn’t get away from him. He jumped early and I couldn’t get back to him.”
Looking back at that race recently, Brammeier said that he suspected beforehand that he could do something. “I kind of knew I was going alright. I did the time trial mid-week and it [6th] wasn’t a brilliant result because I didn’t have a proper bike or anything, I just did it on a road bike. But the numbers I got were good and I had good sensations there. I kind of knew from that I had good condition.
“That said, the road race itself was going into the unknown, really - I’d never raced much in Ireland as a senior before. While I did a few junior races there, as a senior I didn’t know the style of racing and stuff. It was a bit of an unknown.
“Beating Nico at the end of the race was good for confidence. It was also good for my career, as people saw how well he was going [in the Tour and Vuelta, where he was seventh], and I’d beaten him a few weeks before. That made winning the race and taking the jersey a lot more [important]. And, obviously beating Dan [Martin] as well, given the stuff he’s done this year.”
Winning a national championship brings double benefits. There’s the emotions and reward on the competition day itself, and then there’s the privilege of wearing a distinctive jersey for a year afterwards. It makes the rider stand out from the rest of his team – and, to an extent, the peloton – and can earn a lot more attention from media and others. It also serves as an ongoing reminder of the victory gained.
Brammeier said that he got plenty of reactions, including some unusual ones. “When I went back to Belgium and was racing there, there were so many people who didn’t even know what the jersey was. They were like: “What jersey is that?” Some of them thought it was amateur champion’s jersey. A few guys said to me: “You know you can’t wear that jersey in this race, this is a professional race.”
I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m the professional champion.’ A lot of people didn’t believe it for a while…”
Starting English, turning Irish:
As mentioned above, Brammeier won the British Under 23 time trial championship in 2007. He was also junior champion at road and time trial four years earlier. Born in Liverpool on June 7th, 1985, he was part of British Cycling’s Academy setup for a couple of years, getting to know Mark Cavendish there. He moved to the Profel Ziegler Continental Team, then had a setback which threatened his whole career. “It was the end of 2007, it was November, I was just getting back on the bike after having a break,” he told VeloNation. “I got hit by a truck in Manchester, England. I was out training and it just turned left on me on a roundabout.
“My left femur and my right fibia were both broken… it wasn’t good. When it happened, I looked down and saw the condition of my legs. They looked like spaghetti. For a couple of days after, I didn’t know how things were going to work out, in terms of being able to cycle again. But while it was serious, once I was diagnosed and they knew exactly what was wrong, I knew it was all the kind of stuff that can be fixed.
“The surgery was successful and so after that, I was just focusing on getting back really to where I was.”
His recovery was quick; unbelievably, he started racing at the end of May 2008, six months after being steamrolled. He was living in Belgium with his girlfriend Nikki Harris and says that seeing her race prompted him to get back into it a month or two too early. He finished out the season for Profel Ziegler and actually picked up some wins, but said that his left leg was only operating at 40% of what it should have been.
That’s something he has been addressing over this winter, doing a lot of exercises with the HTC Highroad medical staff to get over any lingering imbalances.
“It is something that can be sorted for sure,” he said before Christmas. “It’s probably it’s going to take time again, it’s not going to happen overnight, but I am in the right place now and have the best doctors in the world, really. I couldn’t be anywhere better to get myself back to where I was.
“I don’t think there is a massive performance gain I can get, probably a few percent. But if I can get five or six percent out of it, then it’s big enough to be happy with.”
Brammeier’s solid rides with the Profel team led on to a contract with the An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly team, starting in 2009. That in turn led to his declaring for Ireland. “I was chatting to David O’Loughlin while coming back from a race one day,” he explained. “He was talking about track, and was showing me a few videos on his laptop and stuff. Obviously I’ve done track before with the Brits, so I got a bit excited. It was like a new challenge and stuff. I told him about my mum’s grandparents being Irish and he was real excited and said ‘come on, you might as well give it a shot and come and help us out.’ So it went from there.”
In ways, Brammeier’s situation was a little similar to Dan Martin, who was also born in England, won the British junior championships and then declared for Ireland. Both riders felt a little undervalued where they were, and this prompted the change.
“There were less opportunities for me in the British system, so it was something I was already thinking about anyway,” Brammeier explained. “But David [O’Loughlin] was the final thing that made me pull my finger out and do something rather than just thinking about it.
“I’ve not had any hassle about it…everyone is happy and understands why I did it. It was to benefit my career, really. It’s the best opportunity for me, racing under an Irish license with an Irish jersey. I’m sure nobody is going to bear me any grudges for it.
“Looking at Dan’s situation, when you need someone helping you, when perhaps you are not in the big races and stuff, that’s when you need a good federation behind you. Giving the help and support he wasn’t getting then. Now he doesn’t need it because he is one of the best riders in the world. But back then he really needed it and it wasn’t there from British Cycling.”
Pushing hard for ProTeam placement:
Brammeier hasn’t turned his back on his country of birth, of course. He lined out in the Tour of Britain last year determined to show well there, and also to impress some teams. He’d had a good season with the An Post Sean Kelly team, netting the nationals win, getting third in the GP Stad Geel and eighth in the Mi-Aout en Bretonne; it was time to step up a notch and try to get a ProTeam contract.
“I was pretty aggressive for the week, really, I was trying to get into breaks at the start and stuff like that,” he explained, thinking back to the September event. “On the first day, I almost made it into the break but when I was going across to the lead group, I got sent the wrong way by a marshal. I ended up behind the peloton, chasing to get back on. So at the end of the week I was just a bit frustrated, and kind of let it all out on the last day.”
He attacked from the drop of the flag and spent 20 minutes out front, lining out the peloton and causing the whole HTC-Columbia team to ride hard behind and drag him back. His speed was impressive, and he highlighted his recovery when he went clear again at the end of the stage, snagging the most aggressive rider award for the day.
Brammeier had already had preliminary talks with Brian Holm and Rolf Aldag and what they saw helped convinced them that he had ability; a couple of weeks after the British tour, he further underlined what he could do when he got into the early break and staying clear for much of the day at the world championships.
Knowing Cavendish helped a little in sealing the HTC Highroad deal, but he emphasises that he first had to get the results and prove that he could cut it. “Obviously we speak all the time, and he mentioned a few times that he would help me out if he could,” he explains.
“He said, ‘you know, it’s the same as anywhere else…if you get results, then a big team will come looking for you.’ That was kind of it, really. It wasn’t really anything like me ringing Cav and saying ‘can you get me on the team?’ It was nothing like that. That said, coming up to it [the contract offer], they found out that I knew Cav and he gave them the thumbs up, basically. That helped quite a lot.”
Moving up and riding the top races:
And so, after years of racing in Belgium, after time spent recovering from two broken legs and after a lot of physical therapy to recover, he’s got his chance to ride at the very top level. His showing on the first day of the Tour of Qatar suggests he could fare well, and he’s got plenty of opportunity in the months ahead to prove that is the case.
After Qatar, he’s scheduled to do Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, then Le Samyn, Three Days of West Flanders, Nokere-Koerse and the Vuelta a Catalunya. After that, his provisional schedule should see him do the Three Days of De Panne, Scheldeprijs, Brabantse Pil, Amstel Gold and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
“A lot of that will probably change,” he said. “I am down as a reserve for Tirreno and Roubaix and Flanders. We will see how I go in the first few races.
“It’s definitely a good schedule. Allan Peiper looks at the races and sorts out what everyone does. He sent me the programme, having asked me what I wanted to do, what I wanted to ride. I was a bit overwhelmed really by the programme, all the nice races – I wouldn’t not 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.”
Certainly not when he’s riding as he did in the Qatar prologue. If the season continues as it has started, he’ll have plenty of occasions to show off his white national champion’s jersey. Nicolas Roche has already seen his ability. He won’t be the last to do so.