Ronde de l’Isard winner opts for Rihs’s team over three other ProTour possibilities
Previously, it was presented as a possibility that both Cofidis’s Amael Moinard and Omega Pharma’s Greg Van Avermaet could move to Andy Rihs’s BMC Racing Team in 2011, but Feltet.dk takes it one step further and confirms their transfer for the coming season to the red and black Swiss squad.
BMC will certainly enjoy the services of the two young riders, but went still further down in age to the talented young Belgian, Yannick Eijssen.
Eijssen rode as a stagiaire in 2009 for Omega-Pharma, but remained in the U23 ranks for the 2010 season, which has seen more success from the native of Leuven, Belgium. The 21-year-old climber can lay claim to victories at the Beverbeek Classic and the highly coveted Ronde de l’Isard, as well as a sixth place finish at the U23 Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
The rider was of course on the Omega Pharma radar, but three other ProTour teams were vying for Eijssen’s signature as well: QuickStep, HTC-Columbia, and BMC.
In the end, Eijssen opted for BMC: “I chose BMC, because they gave me more security, so I can develop myself as a climber.”
While the other two signings of Moinard and Van Avermaet have not been officially confirmed, they would seem to add some credible, if undervalued, firepower to the ever improving team. Moinard took the biggest win of his career in Nice in March when he triumphed on the final stage of Paris-Nice en route to securing the prestigious mountains classification at the Race to the Sun. Moinard, who currently sits in 52nd overall at the Tour de France, would be an able domestique for World Champion Cadel Evans and also a capable race winner on his own. Moinard is still a somewhat unknown quantity, but the possibilities for former Vuelta points classification winner, Greg Van Avermaet, are undoubtable, both in the bunch kicks and the Spring Classics.
It looks certain that BMC will have a different look in 2011. The team appears to be attempting to bolster its strength in every facet. It will be interesting to see what other names arrive for 2011, but also which names will be headed out.