The BMC Racing Team today announced the signing of current World Professional Road
Champion Cadel Evans to a three year contract. This partnership will create mutually beneficial
opportunities for both the current World Champion as well as the BMC Racing Team.

“Cadel brings a wealth of experience in the Grand Tours to the team.” BMC Racing Team President
Jim Ochowicz stated. “As I said earlier, our team will have multiple chances to measure ourselves
against the greatest teams in the world. We are pleased that we will have the opportunities to send out our most successful riders, now including Cadel Evans, to tackle these challenges,” Jim Ochowicz
added. Cadel Evans compliments the current team roster that consists of seasoned professionals and
young emerging talents.

Winning a Grand Tour
Cadel Evans took second place in both the 2007 and 2008 Tours de France. Now Cadel Evans wants
to win a Grand Tour. “Cadel Evans heard about how our team was expanding by signing big-name
riders like George Hincapie, Alessandro Ballan, Marcus Burghardt, Karsten Kroon and other strong
racers, and this news immediately fired him up with the idea of riding for such a flexible, engaged and
passionate team,” explained BMC Bicycles owner and BMC Racing Team co-owner Andy Rihs. The
thirty-two year old Australian cyclist who lives in Switzerland is looking forward to building a newly
fortified program with the BMC Racing Team. Cadel Evans believes the BMC Racing Team will help
him accomplish his goal of winning a Grand Tour.

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Santa Rosa, CA - On the heels of signing some of the most established riders in the peloton such as Georges Hincapie, Karsten Kroon, Alessandro Ballan, Marcus Burghardt and Steve Moribito, BMC is reiterating its dedication to building a team of youthful talents by signing Mauro Santambrogio (25) from Italy and Alexander Kristoff (22) from Norway.

Cut his teeth in Italy
Mauro Santambrogio has been a professional since 2004. He turned professional with Team Lampre and has thus far ridden his entire professional career with the Italian squad. “Our two latest signings are both very interesting for our team,” Directeur Sportif John Lelangue explained. “Santambrogio will be a good addition to our stage race team since he is young, but he has already found a good deal of success racing in Italy. And to win in Italy is already quite an accomplishment he can be proud of.” Already friends with fellow new BMC arrival, Alessandro Ballan, Santambrogio is looking forward to being an indispensable member of the UCI Pro Continental Team team. “I have chosen to join BMC because I think it is the perfect team for me to work towards becoming a better rider and improving to another level,” Santambrogio said. “I believe in the philosophy of the team and I hope to participate in the top races so that I can compete against the best in the world.”

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Saint-François-Longchamp -

Mathias Frank spends day in break, Thomas Frei moves up to 16th overall at Dauphiné

Saturday’s stage from Briançon to Saint-François-Longchamp was rated by most as the toughest day of the Dauphiné this year. With three major climbs including the uphill finish taking on the first 14 kilometers of the Col de la Madeleine, real time could be gained or lost over the course of the day.

BMC followed a familiar plan of designating a couple riders to look for the breaks, while the rest of the team focused on keeping best placed rider Thomas Frei protected. A determined Mathias Frank found his way into nearly every break, finally joining the one that stuck and only was caught in the last 10 kilometers. Meanwhile Thomas Frei rode a smart race, sticking with the leaders and moving up to 16th overall. David Moncoutié of Cofidis gave the French their second victory in a row while Valverde matched Evans’ attacks stroke for stroke to defend the overall lead.

Lelangue: Our best day ever in a Pro Tour race

“It was a really big day for us,” Directeur Sportif John Lelangue said. “In the beginning there were a lot of attacks and we had someone always going with them which was the plan.” Designating three riders to watch for the breaks, BMC knew they would have a good chance to pick the right one. “Mathias was jumping into nearly every break, and finally found the good one that went away after about 20 kilometers,” Lelangue explained. “The break started with 20 or more riders, and had about 2 minutes on the peloton going over the Galibier.” Steadily shedding riders up the Croix de Fer, the breakaway began to look like it might be able to succeed until the finish. “Just before reaching the top of the Croix de Fer, Mathias attacked and was joined by Nocentini on the descent,” Lelangue said. “But Nocentini was not in very good shape so he was no help at all and Mathias attacked him again in the 1st kilometer of the final climb.”
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Danilo Wyss snags his first win of the year at Beauce (foto by Tim de Waele)

Having arrived at the Tour de Beauce with a very strong group of riders, the BMC Racing Team started the difficult stage 1 with a lot of confidence and high expectations.

Bridging up to a break which had been initiated by his own BMC teammate Chad Beyer, Danilo Wyss won the sprint from the successful escape. In the meantime, Beyer gathered most of the King of the Mountain points, taking the lead in that as well as in the U23 competition.

A team full of GC threats
“We came here with a strong team. I think all of us could be a GC threat,” Chad Beyer said. “So, we went in to today’s stage without a designated leader and everyone made sure to mark good moves.” Beyer in fact proved himself to be one of the main animators for the entire stage when his attack helped to form what would become the winning breakaway. “I attacked about 40km into the stage got about 10 guys off the front,” Beyer explained. “Danilo bridged up a little later with a couple other riders.” Though he had missed the initial break, Wyss kept his eyes open and watched for the strong counter-attacks. “With over 100 km to go, Chad had escaped with 9 or 10 other riders,” Wyss commented. “Soon after that, Darren Lill counter-attacked and I made sure to follow his wheel since I knew he was the type of rider who could very well bridge up to the leaders.”

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BMC ready to bring A-Game to Romandie
With the start of the Tour of Romandie just days away, the BMC Racing Team is putting the finishing touches on their preparation for their first ProTour stage race of the season. This will be the second year in a row that they have taken the start of the second biggest stage race in Switzerland, and the team’s overall goals will reflect the growth the team has experienced in the past year. Confident that they are fielding a strong group of riders, the management has every expectation that the team will be placing riders in the top 10 of individual stages as well as in the overall General Classification. BMC will be sending Jeff Louder, Alex Moos, Ian McKissick, Mathias Frank, Markus Zberg, Danilo Wyss, Brent Bookwalter and Steve Bovay to Romandie. “The Tour de Romandie has special importance to the team. Enthusiasm for BMC is strong in Romandie, and the Tour de Romandie organization has been supportive of our project. We intend to show our Swiss sponsors, and our Swiss fans, a
strong performance,” says Team Manager Gavin Chilcott.

Confident in strong leaders
“We believe that we have put together a roster which is stronger than what we had last year, and consequently we expect to figure more prominently in the top 10 of the event,” Directeur Sportif John Lelangue explained. “We are bringing Jeff Louder and Alex Moos who have the experience and talent to be in the top 10 of this race, and we also have two young guys in Ian McKissick and Mathias Frank who have some room to learn, but also a lot of potential for a race of this calibre.” Louder’s recent successes at Redlands and Circuit de la Sarthe, and Moos’ strong ride at Paris-Roubaix indicate that both leaders are in the sort of form needed to lead the squad at Romandie. “We will start the race with an eye to protecting all four of these riders, and then see how the race unfolds to decide which one or two of them will have the best opportunity to be highly placed come Geneva,” Lelangue explained.

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Jackson Stewart wins stage, Jeff Louder keeps lead

BMC found itself relishing a perfect ending to a well-executed game plan as Jackson Stewart snatched the stage victory away from the pure sprinters participating at the Redlands Bicycle Classic.

Though the team spent the majority of the 90 minute criterium controlling the race on the front of the pack, Stewart conserved enough in the gas tank to take the well-deserved win. BMC’s Brent Bookwalter rode to third on the day, grabbing his second podium finish at this year’s Redlands.

Staying up front and out of trouble
BMC had every confidence that they would be able to defend the leader’s jersey in the criterium, though with the speed and dangers present in a nine corner crit, no one could feel overly secure. “Our guys are professionals and know how to ride,” General Manager Gavin Chilcott said. “For our European members, the first US crit is a shock to the system though, so it benefited us that we were taking the race from the front.” The day’s game plan would focus on conserving Stewart to go for the stage win while keeping Louder safe and rested in order to defend the overall lead into Sunday. “We had a good game plan going into the stage, and the guys executed it perfectly,” Chilcott explained. “It was really exciting to see them work so well; this is probably the best I’ve ever seen the team ride together.” Though criterium racing is not a team specialty, every member had his job to do and executed it perfectly. “We had a 100% contribution from everyone and allowing for certain
variables in how the race would unfold, the plan was executed perfectly by everyone,” Chilcott reiterated. Race leader Jeff Louder couldn’t have been happier with the way the team rode: “The guys rode amazingly, I was under zero pressure all day. They were like a freight train.”

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Beaumont, CA - After having succeeded the day before in placing so many riders within half a minute of the overall lead, the BMC Racing Team entered the Beaumont Circuit Race in a tactically strong position. Though stage 1 of Redlands is over 150km long, it was clearly still going to be a race of seconds.

Working himself into a 4 man breakaway with just a handful of kilometers left in the race, Jeff Louder won the stage and gained enough time in order to leap from 5th to 1st overall. He also earned the Points Jersey for his day’s efforts.

Change in the wind
As the course around Beaumont is quite exposed, the general assumption was that the wind would be a major player in the race. “When we previewed the course the night before, there was a very strong cross wind and we made our plans accordingly,” General Manager Gavin Chilcott explained. “But on race day, it had changed to being either a head or tail wind for the longer sections of the route.” With those wind conditions, it becomes much harder to break the race apart. “Depending on what direction we were riding, our speed could be 70 or 80 km on the flat or 25 km, the wind was so strong,” Jeff Louder said. “That sort of negates a lot of attacking space since it is hard to get a gap in either situation, but it does make the racing fast, interesting and scary.” Perhaps the biggest effect the wind had was to sap the strength of Fly-V, the team defending the race lead. “That head wind made it really tough on Fly-V,” Louder believed. “Going into the final climb, they were really
hammering it, and even Ben Day was pulling.”

Major selection on final climb
“The main group went into the last climb very fast, powered largely by Fly-V,” Chilcott said. “Their effort whittled down the field to around 15 guys, which played perfectly to our plans.” Positioning in the wind had a big role in deciding who still had a chance at victory. “The group that came to the final climb was vastly depleted, and it was not easy to keep up if you didn’t have a good position,” Louder explained. The nervous racing engendered by the tough wind did in fact play into the hands of Louder who was determined to make the most of the situation. “After we crested the climb and hit the false flat just after the descent, Peter Stetina had gapped the group a little but in doing so had isolated himself in a headwind,” Louder explained. “I knew that was the moment I had to make something happen so I rode into a block head wind for 300 or 400 meters to bridge up.”

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Redlands, CA - Coming into the Redlands Bicycle Classic with a high level of motivation, the BMC Racing Team packed 7 riders in the top 30 finishers of the Sun Time Trial Prologue. Considered one of the more demanding time trials on the US circuit, the Redlands opener takes the riders 5 kilometers up to Panorama Point.

Determined to make the results start rolling in, BMC’s talented group of riders effectively focused their efforts which resulted in Brent Bookwalter taking 2nd just three seconds off Fly-V Australia’s Ben Day’s winning pace. Jeff Louder grabbed 5th, another nine seconds down, while BMC’s U23 member, Chris Barton, took an impressive 16th.

Focused and motivated
“The guys stepped up to the challenge and rode really well today,” General Manager Gavin Chilcott explained. “They were all very serious about living up to expectations and prepared very thoroughly.” Fresh off of their racing together at the San Dimas stage race last weekend, the group benefited from the informal training camp atmosphere of the past week. “Last weekend was a nice dress rehearsal and since we have been able to train together, we’ve all been enjoying a sort of morale camp this week,” Jeff Louder, who was 5th place on the day, described. “Everyone is super motivated and went all out in the prologue; placing 7 guys in the top 27 shows just how ready we are.” Brent Bookwalter concurred: “When we get the chance to live together for an extended period, we all start to synch up and get our heads onto the same page.”

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Ever wonder what it’s like to be the head mechanic on a pro cycling team? What it’s like to hang out the side of a car fixing a derailleur at high speeds? Well, we got to sit down with Ian Sherburne of BMC Racing Team recently to ask him those very questions. His answers may surprise you…

Chad Beyer within striking distance of San Dimas GC

San Dimas, CA - Fielding such a strong team for the San Dimas Hospital Road Race, BMC started the day with an aggressive plan. The rolling course around the Frank G Bonelli Regional Park also includes the tough Cannon climb which has 13% pitches.

Realizing they have a strong group of climbers, BMC planned to make the race as hard as possible for everyone. Though Jelly Belly rider Phillip Gaimon only just managed to steal BMC’s thunder for the stage win, the team is still well placed with Chad Beyer sitting in 8th half a minute down.

Covering moves from the get-go
The game plan for BMC revolved around keeping team mates in the consequential early moves, while holding some strength in reserve for the final push to the finish line. “From the start we were looking to go with the good moves,” Chad Beyer explained. “On the first lap Jeff Louder and I were in a good break with about 10 or 11 guys, but since it was so early in the race, no one was pushing it 100%.” Though that move was caught after two or three laps of the circuit, BMC riders such as Chris Barton, Taylor Tolleson, Brent Bookwalter and Jonathan Garcia inserted themselves into multiple breaks, covering anything that looked dangerous.

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