Brammeier leads OmegaPharma into the new year
Omega Pharma – Quick-Step | January 19, 2012
Matt Brammeier is using his lead-out skills honed at HTC-Highroad to bring team OmegaPharma wins. The team signed the Irish Champion to work in sprints and help in the classics.
Brammeier said, "I'm trying to tell them some of the stuff I learnt last year."
Mark Cavendish is close friends with Brammeier and helped him sign his first professional contract last year. Brammeier often would work in the final 20 kilometres for one of HTC's many sprinters.
He added, "Every race I was fighting. We had so many strong sprinters in HTC."
The Liverpool-born rider is 26 years old, but is only his second year as a professional. He rode several years for third division teams, but also suffered a setback when he fractured his hip and both legs.
"I was on the verge of a contract and had the accident in 2007. I sort of lost a few years there. I spent so much time trying to come back from injuries and stuff. Last year, I was 25 and still felt like a neo-pro coming into a big pro team."
OmegaPharma hired many of HTC's riders and staff when the team folded at the end of last year. In addition to Brammeier, Bert Grabsch and Tony Martin joined. Sports director Brian Holm also switched to the Belgian team.
Former professional, Tom Steels coaches Brammeier and a few of his team-mates.
"I chat with him every other day, he asks how I'm going and feeling, how the race is going," Brammeier explained. "To be honest, he's always kinda holding me back, even if I'm always wanting to do more: an extra hour here or there. He reminds me that it's still January and the Tour of Flanders is still three months away."
Brammeier rode his first Paris-Roubaix last year and wants to have shot helping Tom Boonen win the Tour of Flanders this year. He said that "it's not going to be easy" given the team is such a strong classics team. Working with Steels, though, he believes he is on the right track to have his chance.
"I'm a domestique really. Many guys don't want to sacrifice themselves for the team 100 percent, but I see that as my job and my forte. If I win a few smaller races at the end of the year, it's not going make any difference if I get a bigger contract. I want to do my job in the lead outs and help in the classics."
He rode in an escape at the Tour Down Under today in South Australia. After the classics in April, Brammeier said that he might make his Grand Tour debut in the Giro d'Italia.