Santa Rosa, CA - Having had what could be termed a break-out year in 2008, Scott Nydam and the rest of the BMC Racing Team are chomping at the bit to kick off the 2009 season with a bang.

In last year’s Tour of California, Nydam had his greatest success and impressed the entire peloton when he and his team mates defended the King of the Mountains jersey. “That whole race was a special experience that will stay with me for the rest of my life,” Nydam declared. “My father had just been diagnosed as being gravely ill, I had just crashed out of the Tour of Qatar and was feeling a little defeated.” Instead of hanging on to the tail of the pack or waiting to get dropped by the peloton, Nydam decided to go on the attack. “The whole experience was very special particularly in the context of what was happening in my family, and is a memory I will savour forever,” Nydam explained.

With the 2009 edition of the Tour of California just weeks away, Nydam has been using the past months to recharge his battery. With BMC ramping up its goals and ambitions for the coming season, everyone is excited to see what will be possible in the New Year. Nydam took the time over the holiday to give some of his impressions.

What are your early season goals?
Like last year, I think that it is important that we hit the ground running. This year we have a bigger and better roster of riders and we should expect to build on everything that happened last year so that means going to many of the same races as we did in 2008, but this time with a lot more confidence and higher expectations.

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Santa Rosa/Paris - Since the snow is falling and most people are turning their attention to winter activities like skiing and Christmas shopping, it is paradoxically time for professional cyclists and teams to start their serious preparations for the up coming season.

Now that BMC is assured of its place in the ProContinental division, concrete plans can be made for race options and season goals. “For BMC, 2009 will be a season of consolidation where we want to improve our roster, races and results,” Directeur Sportif John Lelangue recently declared.

2009: a year of confirmation

In 2009, BMC will join 17 other teams in the ProContinental division, while there will be another 16 teams in the ProTour. “Considering the list of teams that were not - at least initially - awarded a ProContinental license, we are very much aware of the top-notch company in which we find ourselves,” Lelangue said. “This is very important to us since it will open up the option of racing in a lot of European events that we consider to be essential to our growth.” The next important step will be for BMC to gain Wild Card status again when that designation is announced in February. “Being Wild Card will be really useful in our objective to keep improving since it will mean we can be invited to ProTour races which are hugely important to us: the Tours of Romandie and Switzerland,” Lelangue explained. Lelangue is also aware that a successful tenure in the 2nd division is a handy stepping stone to ProTour status and level. “Look at Garmin and Katusha. They both spent several
years building their programs and now they have leaped to the top division,” Lelangue said.

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BMC has been awarded a ProContinental license by the UCI and is the only team registered in the United States to be granted this status. “It is an honor to be representing the United States on this list and we are proud of our team’s American-Swiss structure,” Directeur Sportif John Lelangue said.

The UCI awards these licenses according to multiple criteria including the strength of a team’s administrative structure as well as the sporting results from the previous year. “We were hoping to race at this level again in 2009,” Lelangue explained. “We can be proud of our organization and our sporting level and will now concentrate on confirming our progress by having an even stronger roster, additional top level races and better results in 2009.”

A global view and a clear vision

After effectively using 2008 as a year for gaining experience at the top levels of professional cycling, the BMC Racing Team will be looking to take a serious step toward increasing the number of victories in 2009. Having the ProContinental status will be instrumental in BMC being able to gain admittance to the races which will form the backbone of their season. “The UCI understands that we are serious about all aspects of running a top-notch racing team,” Lelangue concluded. “The UCI knows that we have a global view and a clear vision of what we want to accomplish because they recognize our efforts to race ethically and according to the rules, the strength our administrative organization, and our determination to start gaining concrete results.”

photo courtesy of kwc.org

As the season winds down and the members of the BMC Racing Team segue into their off-season routines, it is time for the riders to digest what has happened in 2008, and look forward to the coming season. BMC began the year with the motto “the team is the star”, and each member is proud to have lived up to that idea. “It was really cool to see how everyone grew throughout the year, and how I grew along with everyone else!” Jeff Louder explained. And as the end of the year momentum was very much in BMC’s favour, there also seems to be unanimous excitement to pick up where they left off when the ’09 season rolls around.

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I caught up with the BMC team at the start of the 2008 Tour of Missouri stage 5, in St James where the riders were getting ready for another aggressive stage in high humidity. Mike Sayers announced his retirement earlier this year, and is racing his last big race at the Tour of Missouri. Going into the day, Jeff Louder was sitting in tenth place in the overall classification and had been very aggressive in the previous day’s break. Darren Lill had a great time trial result finishing in seventh place but missed the move on stage 4, and is now back to hunting for stage wins and assisting his teammate in moving up the GC. Finally, Jonathan Garcia is hitting his form after suffering two hard crashes this year.

This is your last big race, this is it. How does it feel?
Mike: Yes, this is it. I get mixed feelings, the team, I think they finalized the roster this week, and they are doing a press release, I feel a little bit left out honestly but it’s part of it. Especially after a day like yesterday where I suffered a little bit and those are the days I’m not really going to miss. I think as we get closer to Sunday, it’s going to be a little more difficult. The only good thing is that Ive known it’s coming and I can prepare myself for it, just going to give the last couple of days everything I got. The team is riding really well which is awesome, that’s one thing I’m really proud of, how far the team has come, how far the team is going. It’s just kind of the natural evolution of things.

The BMC team seems to have brought it up a level in the last few months, what brought this on?
Mike: I just think it was the progression, I just think it took us some time to get guys organized and get some experience in the bank, again I think we’ve reached that point, obviously the leadership from Gavin[Chilcott] and John [Lelangue] has made a big difference, they were always pushing guys to be aggressive and I think it does help you get a little more cohesive. I think it’s just a combination of things, I just think it’s generally the natural maturity of how things are going. And you bring in some more experienced riders like Tony [Cruz] and Jeff [Louder], they make a big difference, it’s not just me telling guys what to do, those guys are talented enough to kind of lead by example, it’s been really nice and a really nice team to finish up with, that’s one of the great things, I get to leave on one of the best teams and just kind of be proud of that whole thing.

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It is called the race of truth for a reason. After 320 miles and over 30,000 feet of climbing over four days, “America’s Toughest Stage Race” came down to the final 7.5-mile flat time trial at the Tour of Utah. Trailing by seven seconds in the overall classification behind Blake Caldwell (Garmin-Chipotle), Utah native Jeff Louder (BMC) came in third and more importantly bested Caldwell’s time by sixteen seconds to be crowned the winner of the Tour of Utah.

Jeff Louder (BMC) gives it everything he’s got in the final meters to win the Tour of Utah

With his form back after breaking his collarbone at the Tour of the Gila back in May, time trial specialist Tom Zirbel (Bissell) stopped the clock at 13:50 to win the final stage. The only other man to break the fourteen-minute barrier, comeback kid Brent Bookwalter (BMC) was second, nine seconds back.

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The contenders duked it out in the final climb of the Queen stage at the Tour of Utah. Before the stage, 13 riders were separated by 38 seconds in the general classification but after slogging it over 14,778 feet (4,504 m) of climbing over a 98-mile (159 km) road race, the race now comes down to 2 pretenders to the title.

Utah native Jeff Louder (BMC) was triumphant in front of a home crowd and crossed the line first, pointing in pride at his jersey. Yellow jersey Blake Caldwell (Garmin-Chipotle) crossed the line in second place, 13 seconds back. With time bonuses on the line, Caldwell now has a 7-second buffer over Louder going into the final stage, a relatively flat 12-mile (19.3 km) out and back time trial that starts and finishes at the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele.

Jeff Louder (BMC) points to his BMC jersey when crossing the line in front of an enthusiastic crowd

A break of 7 riders went off in the first 10 miles of the race, and got almost a five minute advantage before being caught on the HC climb up Alpine Loop at around the 55-mile marker. One participant in the break was green jersey Brad White (Successful Living), on his third break of the race, who nailed down the Sprint jersey as no one contended the sprints.

The lone survivor of the break, Mike Creed (Rock Racing) grabbed the KOM points before re-integrating the chasing dwindling field.

By the time the lead group made it to the bottom of the final climb to Snowbird, the numbers were down to about 25 riders with all the contenders present and ready for action. Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) was the first one to launch a move which caused ripples in the group. Garmin-Chipotle duo including Caldwell started to chase him down which caused the BMC duo of Louder and Darren Lill to react and chase the argyle pair. Meanwhile, KOM Glen Chadwick (Team Type 1) flew away, passed Sevilla and got a 20 seconds gap to the chasers, but Caldwell went after him and passed the Kiwi.

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Two in a row for the Garmin-Chipotle team. This time is was Blake Caldwell who emerged from a break to win the stage and take over the yellow jersey from his teammate’s shoulders. After 85 miles (137 km) and 10,585 feet (3.226 m) of climbing, Caldwell outsprinted his two-man breakaway companion Darren Lill (BMC) to win stage 2 at the Tour of Utah. Bringing the chase group, 18 seconds behind for third place was BMC’s Jeff Louder.

Caldwell is now the new leader in the overall classification, with Lill in second place at 4 seconds back, and Jason Donald (Garmin-Chipotle) drops down from first to third.

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For over a week, the BMC Racing Team lived and trained at altitude in the Utah Mountains, preparing themselves for the challenging stages they will face in the 2008 Tour of Utah.

I caught up with Utah native and resident Jeff Louder and his teammate, and sea-level dweller Ian McKissick prior to stage 2 to get their thoughts on altitude and the Tour of Utah.

The team just finished a high altitude training camp, what were you looking to do?
Jeff: I just wanted to be sure to show the guys the terrain and also I think that this is the kind of race that you really have to know the conditions to perform, to do actually some actual race performances in the heat and on the climbs could be beneficial so it’s good the team out, adapt to the altitude, adapt to the heat, the dryness of the air an then just ride the courses and see real world how they feel. You can look at a course on a profile but until you ride up it with a group of strong guys you really don’t know it. Hopefully, these guys have a bit more knowledge than the rest of the field and we can use that to our advantage, we’ll see.

How does altitude impact a cyclist?
Jeff: It’s as much mental than physical. It;s just the way that you feel that is so much different, you can’t breathe, your legs don’t hurt but you can’t breathe, you feel like you’re going to have a heat attack. That’s what I assume, I’ve always lived at altitude, I’ve always trained at altitude. I think it’s just an adaptation like anything else, just getting used to heat, to humidity, it’s just something that the more you do it, the more it becomes normal, so for us to come out and spend some time at altitude and suffer on the climbs like that, it just helps when you get in the race, it feels more normal, well as normal as racing allows you to feel.

What’s the plan for the BMC team?
Jeff: This climb coming up at the beginning, it’s really important to be attentive also it’s a bit of a wait and see, it’s going to set the tone for the entire day but you just don’t know who’s climbing well and who’s not, what kind of cards are people going to lay on the table. For us, we know what’s out there so we’re going to wait and see how the others react, try do use our knowledge to outperform them and then as the race progresses, just try … we have a strong real deep team and hopefully we can use our numbers to good effect.

Everyone is going well?
Jeff: Everyone is going w