Tour de France winners taking a different approach to the final Grand Tour
The BMC Racing Team has announced its line up for the Vuelta a España that gets underway on Saturday. The team won the Tour de France this year with Cadel Evans but will have a different approach to the final Grand Tour of the year. According to Directeur Sportif John Lelangue, the team’s aim will be towards stage wins and getting into breakaways.
“We don’t have the same objective as we had at the Tour de France – like supporting one leader,” Lelangue said. “This race is wide open for all the guys.”
Greg Van Avermaet will be riding his third Vuelta and is a former stage and points classification winner in the race. He’s been on good form of late winning stage six in the Tour of Austria before going on to win a stage and the general classification in the Tour de Wallonie.
“We know he’s pretty good on the tough finishes and getting in breakaways,” said Lelangue, thus making it clear that he will be one of the riders the team looks to for results.
Making his debut will be the much-talked about neo pro Taylor Phinney. His first year in the professional ranks didn’t start as smoothly as he’d hoped when knee injuries and an accident in training hampered his racing schedule. The under 23 time trial champion has however looked a different rider for the second half of the year, last week winning the opening prologue in the Eneco Tour.
He will be supporting Van Avermaet in the sprints and is likely to play a major role on Saturday, as the race starts with a team time trial.
“I’m looking forward to this race and I’m really excited to see what we can accomplish as a group,” Phinney said. “We have the potential to have a good Vuelta and I hope to be able to contribute to that. I think this will be a good experience for me. Looking forward to the worlds, this is the best preparation that I can think of.”
In recent days Phinney made it clear that he was hoping to take a medal at the Elite time trial championships there.
The experience of veteran professional and Tour de France stage winner Karsten Kroon will be counted on, while there is a chance that Mathias Frank, Ivan Santaromita and Johann Tschopp could do well in the general classification, depending on how these climbers handle the race’s six mountain top finishes.
BMC Racing Team Vuelta a España Roster (Aug. 20-Sept. 11):
Mathias Frank (SUI), Martin Kohler (SUI), Karsten Kroon (NED), Taylor Phinney (USA), Manuel Quinziato (ITA), Mauro Santambrogio (ITA), Ivan Santaromita (ITA), Johann Tschopp (SUI), Greg Van Avermaet (BEL).