Using Omloop van het Houtland-Lichtervelde as final tune-up
BMC Racing will have all of 12 riders racing with BMC machines in the individual portion of the World Championships in the Netherlands this week. As final preparation for Sunday’s road race, the squad is sending ten men to the Omloop van het Houtland-Lichtervelde on Wednesday.
Sunday’s road world championship will see Brent Bookwalter (United States), Marcus Burghardt (Germany), Steve Cummings (Great Britain), Mathias Frank (Switzerland), Philippe Gilbert (Belgium), Steve Morabito (Switzerland), Taylor Phinney (United States), Michael Schär (Switzerland), Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium) and Tejay van Garderen (United States) all competing in the 261km race from the BMC Racing squad.
For the USA, both Phinney and van Garderen will represent in the time trial, hoping to erase some of the bitterness resulting from BMC’s three-second defeat in the team time trial at the hands of Omega Pharma-Quick Step, when van Garderen accidentally pulled away from his team-mates on the Cauberg, dropping Phinney and losing time close to the finish.
“They’re all still motivated late in the season,” team director Jim Ochowicz said. “The Worlds is a big event. The team time trial was something we worked awfully hard to prepare for. Now we’re looking forward to the individual time trial and the road race for even more success.”
As the Worlds time trial and the Houtland-Lichtervelde race fall on the same day, neither Phinney nor van Garderen will be taking part in the single-day affair. BMC will, however, be sending four men to the Wednesday race who will also be competing for their respective countries on Sunday.
Bookwalter, Cummings, Frank and Schär will be joined by Alessandro Ballan, Adam Blythe, Martin Kohler, Klaas Lodewyck, Manuel Quinziato, and Danilo Wyss. The Belgian 1.1 race has the unique feature of ten-man start lists possible, with Omega Pharma-Quick Step bringing ten in support of returning champion Guillaume van Keirsbulck.
Also bringing a full compliment of ten will be Lotto-Belisol, Rabobank, Topsport-Vlaanderen, RusVelo, Accent Jobs-Willems Verandas, Argos-Shimano, An Post-Sean Kelly, Bofrost-Steria, Christina Watches-Onfone, Colba-Superano Ham, Cyclingteam de Rijke and MTN Qhubeka.
Past winners of the race include Graeme Brown, Steven de Jongh, and Robbie McEwen.
“Normally, this race ends in a sprint,” BMC director Rik Verbrugghe stated of the Houtland-Lichtervelde race. “So most of the time, especially with Adam [Blythe] being fourth Sunday at GP d’Isbergues, hopefully he can do something good.”
“It can be quite a hard race, but the finish is on small roads – so I hope it’s another bunch sprint or a sprint from a small group,” Blythe added.