Stars Evans and Phinney remain home
Team BMC Racing began a two-week training camp today near Valencia, Spain, to prepare for next season.
“This is a good ‘bridge’ camp between the end of the season get-together we had in Italy and the start of our main pre-season training camp in January,” Sports Director John Lelangue said in a press release.
Lelangue will use the time to meet with BMC’s assistant directors to discuss their riders’ race schedules for next year. The riders will of course train, working on “volume and intensity,” and test new equipment.
The majority of the team will attend, but some of the non-Europeans are staying home.
“Wish I was in Spain with my [team]! Sad to miss out on the first camp, but I’ll see you guys in January!” BMC’s new rider, Taylor Phinney wrote on Twitter.
“The camp is optional for US riders. I need to be stateside this month!”
Phinney ended a successful year as an Under 23 rider, highlighted with a second Paris-Roubaix title and the Worlds time trial.
BMC’s star Cadel Evans enjoying the Australian summer. He said on Twitter, I am “going through some paperwork in Australia.”
Evans wore the leader’s jersey in the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France this year, won a stage at the Giro d’Italia and the one-day classic, Flèche Wallonne.
His UCI points helped the team jump from second to first division. The International Cycling Union (UCI) announced on November 22 that BMC will race as a ProTeam next year.
Next year’s team:
Alessandro Ballan (Italy)
Chris Barton (USA)
Chad Beyer (USA)
Brent Bookwalter (USA)
Marcus Burghardt (Germany)
Christopher Butler (USA)
Cadel Evans (Australia)
Mathias Frank (Switzerland)
George Hincapie (USA)
Martin Kohler (Switzerland)
Alexander Kristoff (Norway)
Karsten Kroon (Netherlands)
Jeff Louder (USA)
Steve Morabito (Switzerland)
John Murphy (USA)
Mauro Santambrogio (Italy)
Michael Schär (Switzerland)
Danilo Wyss (Switzerland)
Simon Zahner (Switzerland)
New riders:
Yannick Eijssen (Belgium)
Amaël Moinard (France)
Taylor Phinney (USA)
Manuel Quinziato (Italy)
Timothy Roe (Australia)
Ivan Santaromita (Italy)
Johann Tschopp (Switzerland)
Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium)