Tag Archives: BMC

2014 Team Preview – BMC Racing Team

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The American based, and Swiss financed squad, are often considered to be cycling’s biggest budget super team, although precise figures are hard to find. The reality is that they are likely to have a comparable budget to that of Team Sky, and possibly one or two other teams. Both BMC and Sky have been able to field star studded teams in recent seasons; Sky have frequently deployed their talent as a focused unit in the service of the designated leader, which has reaped dividends for them. However BMC’s approach has tended to be more dysfunctional, with the whole being less than the sum of its parts. Maybe they’ve had too many similar riders, powerful all-rounders and engines, without enough specialists to bring in the results. Perhaps they were guilty of having too many options and not enough focus. There have been a number of good results and some great moments in the last three seasons. Cadel Evans won the Tour (2011), Philippe Gilbert won the road World Championship (2012), Tejay van Garderen won the White Jersey at the Tour de France (2012) and Taylor Phinney wore the Maglia Rosa (2012). However the team hasn’t lived up to its potential and the result of that has been a change in managerial direction for the new season. Allan Peiper takes over with the promise of clearly defined targets for each rider, more manageable race loads for the star riders, and choosing a single team leader for the Tour de France.

That team leader will be van Garderen, as the 25 year old American seeks to properly elevate his racing to a World Tour level. Last season was something of a disappointment for van Garderen, however he did manage to fulfil some of his ambitions when winning the Amgen Tour of California and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado. It was a different story on European soil, where he started well by finishing 4th overall in Paris-Nice but it went downhill from there. The worst came at the Tour de France where van Garderen suffered from the heat early on; losing his strength and a tonne of time, there was no way back. He did recover some form in the final week, and came agonizingly close to a win on the double Alpe d’Huez stage, but finishing 45th overall will have hurt. van Garderen is a powerful climber rather than an explosive one, and he puts that power to good use as a time trialist. Cadel Evans won’t be returning to the Tour in 2014, instead he will be mounting an assault on the Giro, trying to outperform his surprising 3rd place finish from last season. Evans originally went to the Giro as a desperate gamble to build fitness for the Tour, but managed to find himself in the thick of things before fading in the second half of the race. So this year the Giro is actually the target, with his fitness and racing programs arranged accordingly. The team brings back some veteran support riders for those GC ambitions, with Steve Morabito, Amael Moinard, Stephen Cummings all capable climbers. While Dominik Nerz, Larry Warbasse and Yannick Eijssen are younger riders who have flashed their climbing talent, Nerz in particular looks ready to take the next step in 2014. However it was clear that BMC needed an influx of climbing talent, and the signing of Peter Velits, John Darwin Atapuma, Peter Stetina and Ben Hermans does just that. Velits is a solid stage race rider, and strong all-rounder, who has a 3rd place finish in the 2010 Vuelta to his credit. Atapuma has really impressed over the last two seasons with the Colombia team, his performance on the steep sections during the Tour de Pologne really stood out. He is the most gifted pure climber on the roster, and is already slated to ride the Tour in support of van Garderen. Stetina has shown up well on some mountain stages for the Garmin-Sharp team, and looked like he could do more if given the chance, and Hermans is more of a punchy rider.

Can they make the most of their stage winners?

Despite enduring a difficult year in the Rainbow Jersey, Philippe Gilbert is one of the most successful riders of the current decade. After sweeping the Ardennes Classics in 2011 and racking up the wins, he had a quieter 2012 before springing to life in the Vuelta and finishing the season as the World Champion. Gilbert will be shaking up his race schedule for 2014, trying to stay fresher and regain the explosive burst that made him so strong on the short, steep slopes of the Ardennes in 2011. BMC do have strong support riders who can help Gilbert, none more so than Marcus Burghardt who has a great engine. Greg Van Avermaet is a fine opportunistic stage winner, he has decent sprint speed, climbs well and is well suited to many of same the races Gilbert does well in. He had an excellent campaign on the cobbles in 2013, with 3rd in Gent-Wevelgem, 7th in Ronde van Vlaanderen and 4th in Paris-Roubaix. With Gilbert skipping the cobbles altogether this season, Van Avermaet can expect a large role in those races. Taylor Phinney is a powerhouse time trial specialist, and a developing classics rider. He has a decent turn of speed at the finish, but his fine stage win in Poland was all about the power to hold off the chasing pack. Thor Hushovd may have slowed a little but he remains the team’s best sprinter for now, though he is more of a strongman sprinter and all-round rider. Hushovd, another former World Champion, and definitely still a fan favourite, will have an eye on the Cobbled Classics alongside sprint success. Daniel Oss is a similar type of rider to Hushovd, though without ever reaching the same heights. More intriguing though is the signing of 20 year old Rick Zabel, son of Erik, and a promising young sprinter in his own right, one for the future. Alessandro Ballan has fought his way back from a horrible injury, but he now has to fight his way through the Mantova affair, if he is to contribute to the BMC season.

2014 outlook

BMC have invested heavily in the last few seasons and created a strong squad, now they want to see more prestigious results. Gilbert, Hushovd, Van Avermaet and Phinney look to be the most likely to deliver in 2014. Getting van Garderen back into the top 10 in the Tour de France, combined with success in the one-week stage races of the World Tour, are certainly attainable goals.

Transfer Talk: John Darwin Atapuma Joins BMC

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GP Nobili 2013 by nuestrociclismo.com
GP Nobili 2013, a photo by nuestrociclismo.com on Flickr.

Having already signed Peter Stetina and Peter Velits, BMC are continuing to rebuild their climbing options for 2014 with the addition of John Darwin Atapuma.
In 2012, his first season with the Colombia team, Darwin Atapuma produced a couple of impressive results on mountain finishes. He won on the Passo Pordoi in the Giro del Trentino, was 2nd on Mt Baldy in the Tour of California. In 2013 he took another step forward, finishing 18th overall in the Giro d’Italia, his first Grand Tour. He also finished 7th overall in the Tour of Turkey, 6th on the Tour de Slovenie and won the sixth stage in the Tour de Pologne. It was the first stage win in a World Tour race for the Colombia team and a terrific performance from Atapuma, using the steepest section on a climb to attack from the remnants of a large break, dropping a number of notable climbers in the process. Darwin Atapuma, 25, has shown himself to be a gifted climber who is at home on the more difficult climbs. He is ready to step up to the World Tour where he will initially be used in support of the main GC riders for BMC, though he could grow into a larger role.

 

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Transfer Talk : Peter Stetina Joins BMC

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Peter Stetina by Roxanne King
Peter Stetina, a photo by Roxanne King on Flickr.

Peter Stetina has been involved with the Garmin-Sharp team for most of his career but is leaving for the chance to race in the biggest races and also seeking some personal glory as well. The 26 year old American has shown himself to be a strong support climber, he has performed very well when helping several of his team mates win stage races in the last couple of seasons. In the 2013 Tour of Utah Stetina did a lot of work for Lachlan Morton and then Tom Danielson. Stetina did a great turn on the final climb of the race to shred the peloton and give Danielson the platform to kick away to win the race. Peter Stetina was part of the squad when Dan Martin won the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya. Although the victory came from Martin’s breakaway on stage 4, Stetina has ridden well with him the previous day and had out climbed Martin at the end of the stage. He was there again for Christian Vande Velde’s victory in the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challnge race in Colorado, where Stetina finished 9th overall himself as one of three Garmin riders in the top ten. Most importantly though Stetina was a crucial part of Ryder Hesjedals victory in the 2012 Giro d’Italia, when he and Christian Vande Velde were the support riders for Hesjedal in the mountains. Both riders were hugely impressive in their roles, chasing attacks and pacing Hesjedal through the Dolomites during the final week. He has completed the Giro d’Italia three times now but it’s the only Grand Tour he has had the chance to ride.
While he hasn’t had many opportunities to ride for himself he has shown he can do well, finishing 4th overall in the 2013 Tour de Langkawi and 3rd in the Gran Premio Miguel Indurain, a one day race full of climbing. However they aren’t the most prestigious races and the desire to race in more of the biggest races must be part of his motivation for moving to BMC. He wants to ride in the Tour de France and he should get the chance to do so in support of Tejay Van Garderen, he also wants a chance to ride for himself in a better quality of races than he has had to date. It was hard for him to find those opportunities at Garmin-Sharp as there is a lot of competition for squad places at the biggest races. Hesjedal, Martin, Danielson and Andrew Talansky all seem to be established as team leaders and there are a number of other support riders capable of fulfilling the same role. There will be less competition for that role at BMC, as while the team has a lot of talent there was a clear need to strengthen their climbing options. Having friends already at BMC certainly won’t harm his chances of succeeding there.

For BMC this signing follows the same principles of the Peter Velits one, theyare recruiting a stronger stable of support climbers for their GC team. They are also increasing their options for the one week stage races throughout the year, races where riders such as Stetina and Velits can take the starring role.

Transfer Talk: Peter Velits Joins BMC

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For the last four seasons BMC have had a top GC rider in Cadel Evans, and potentially Tejay Van Garderen, yet for all the talent in their squad they have consistently failed to surround those GC riders with support climbers. It’s not that the team is totally bereft of those options, as they have a number of good climbers. Riders such as Steve Morabito, Amael Moinard, Steve Cummings and Mathias Frank, they also have promising young climbers in Dominik Nerz and Yannick Eijssen. But they haven’t had the same strength of climbers as the teams they are in direct competition with, Sky, Astana, Movistar, Saxo-Tinkoff and possibly Garmin-Sharp and Katusha as well. They seem to compound this by leaving some of their strongest support climbers out of the team for any Grand Tour they try and win. That’s partially due to the strength of their squad, they have so many strong riders who merit a place on the highest stages that they take an unbalanced squad featuring too many engines for the flat and not enough strength in the mountains. In 2011 Cadel Evans had superb support on the flat stages, in the hills and lesser mountains but was often isolated in the high mountains, his win was all the more impressive because of that but it’s fair to say that wouldn’t be the blueprint for success.
In light of that it is imperative that the team uses some of it’s ample budget to recruit more support climbers and that is exactly what they have done by signing Peter Velits away from Omega Pharma-Quick Step. Velits is a strong climber, a strong time trialist and even an accomplished support rider on the flatter stages, an important role at OPQS. In his two years with the Belgian team his climbing talent seems to have declined, possibly to focus on improving as an all rounder given the teams focus on flatter races, though he had always been good in that respect. His results in those two years have been intermittent, his best result coming in his second month as an OPQS rider when he beat Vincenzo Nibali by one second to win the 2.HC Tour of Oman. His most successful years came with the HTC team which was highlighted by his 3rd overall finish in the 2010 Vuelta a Espana.
In this years Tour de France, Peter Velits was visible riding in support of Michal Kwiatkowski, he still managed to finish 25th overall. That meant he was 10 places and 26 minutes ahead of BMC’s best placed riders Steve Morabito. It’s not a fair comparison of course as Morabito was often having to work for his struggling team leader Cadel Evans and lost a lot of time as a result. Signing Velits is a good move for BMC, it strengthens their climbing options and it could really pay off if they can get him back to his best in the high mountains.