Bet on Cycling

The BMC team was a high-quality UCI Professional Continental Team in 2010 but the US-registered team has secured a UCI ProTeam licence for 2011 and so will ride in the most important races on the UCI WorldTour Calendar this year.

The team is stronger than ever, having retained its leading riders of 2010 and added some important new riders.

Australia’s Cadel Evans honoured his World Champion’s rainbow jersey with a series of gutsy performances last year. He won Flèche Wallonne and the spectacular stage of the Giro d’Italia on the rain-soaked dirt roads of Tuscany, finishing fifth in the UCI World Ranking for the year.

Evans also wore the race leader’s yellow jersey at the Tour de France.
Sadly his dream of overall victory was shattered by a crash and the pain of a fractured elbow. However the former mountain biker fought on and finished the Tour, and has promised to again target the Tour de France in 2011.

George Hincapie will again lead the BMC team in the cobbled classics and have a final tilt at winning Paris-Roubaix. Success in the Queen of the classics would be a lifetime achievement award at the end of the American’s long career.

BMC’s classics team also includes former World Champion Alessandro Ballan, who will be looking to make up for a quiet 2010, fellow Italian Mauro Santambrogio, Germany’s Marcus Burghardt and new signings Greg Van Avermaert of Belgium and dependable Italian Manuel Quinziato.

Van Avermaert is a good sprinter and will have more space to target success at BMC, while Quinziato has the experience and mentality needed for when the racing gets tough. In 2011 it will be interesting to see how American riders Jeff Louder, Brent Bookwalter and Chris Butler progress after their first season with BMC in Europe.

New signing and neo-pro Taylor Phinney will be in the spotlight despite being just 20. He has proven his ability on both the track and the road and now steps up to the highest level of the sport to compete against the best in the world.

Expectations are high but Phinney looks to have the ability to be competitive in the sprints, time trials and classics, and the right attitude to go on to be one of the stars of the sport.