Greg Van Avermaet to get his wish: targeting both the Cobbles and the Ardennes

New BMC signing to get the chance to shine in both Flanders and the Ardennes

At the end of November, BMC signing Greg Van Avermaet admitted that he hoped to shift his focus from the cobbled half of April to the hillier second half of important month.

At the time, Van Avermaet admitted to Sportmagazine that, “the cobblestones and the hills are not the problem, because I’m explosive enough. The nervous racing is my problem. The fights and elbows are not so good for me. In my experience, I do better if I don’t have to knock down thirty riders to get to the front.”

It was an interesting concession by the former Vuelta a Espana points jersey winner. Van Avermaet has showed himself as one of the world’s fastest finishers, and there’s no paucity of kicking and scratching at the front end of a sprint. The wild nature of the cobbled classics, in particular, the Tour of Flanders, seems to have made the all-around talent take a closer look at his possibilities for the future.

Considering his unquestioned abilities over all terrains, a decision to focus more on the Ardennes wasn’t so crazy. A closer look at the 2010 season shows solid placings at the Clasica San Sebastian, the Tour de l’Ain, the World Championships, the overall at Tirreno-Adriatico, and even 16th at the Giro di Lombardia.

A little over five weeks after noting that he’d like to shift his focus in the spring, Van Avermaet’s early season schedule was announced through Wielerflits.nl. Van Avermaet appears to have gotten his wish. He’ll have a very busy spring season with appearances both on the cobbles and in the Ardennes, but no Paris-Roubaix.

He’ll start with the Tours of Qatar and Oman as his debut races with his new BMC team. After that, it’s back to Belgium for the Belgian opening weekend doubleheader of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.

Like many of the other Classics hopes, Van Avermaet will head south to Tuscany for the Strade Bianche a week later. That will be followed by every Milano-Sanremo dreamer’s favorite tune-up stage race, Tirreno-Adriatico.

Following Tirreno-Adriatico, the fun begins: Milano-Sanremo, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Gent-Wevelgem, the Three Days of De Panne, the Ronde van Vlaanderen, and then a deep breath. Van Avermaet should make up a vital part of the red and black armada on the cobbles with former Tour of Flanders winner, Alessandro Ballan, perennial contenders, George Hincapie and Manuel Quinziato, and former Gent-Wevelgem winner, Marcus Burghardt.

A ten day break will hopefully give Van Avermaet a chance to recuperate a little bit in time for his second big push in the spring: the hilly classics. He’ll start back with the Brabantse Pijl, then it’s to the Ardennes Triptych: the Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallonne, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Van Avermaet certainly won’t be the captain in the Ardennes with Cadel Evans rightly at the helm, but he’ll hopefully be a powerful possibility. 

For most, Liege-Bastogne-Liege will cap off the spring session, but for Van Avermaet, he’ll have the new one day race in Germany, the Skoda Velothon Berlin, to take care of the day after La Doyenne, before he can step back and assess how his plan played out.

There’s no question that Van Avermaet has shown sparks of brilliance over a vast array of terrain so far in his career. As of yet though, there has been little in the way of outright major success save for a stage win and the Vuelta points jersey in 2008. His transfer over to BMC could see the door open wider for him as part of a sterling Classics squad, both on the cobbles and in the hills, while he continues to develop into the star rider that he has long shown the promise to become.

“[Philippe] Gilbert did so well this year and won the Amstel Gold Race and was sparkling in Liege. The combination of the Ronde is certainly possible. If it works, then my future is in the Ardennes,” said the rider in November to Sportmagazine.

Perhaps he can do as his former teammate has done and show himself able of competing with the best not only on the cobbles and hellingen of Flanders, but also in the hills in the south of Belgium.