The 2011 Tour winner Cadel Evans returns in 2012 to defend his crown with the BMC team once again built around the Australian. The team primarily retains its core from last year but with two notable changes. The Belgian Philippe Gilbert has been reunited with Evans at BMC in 2012 as the two had previously ridden together at the Lotto team. The young American Tejay Van Garderen makes his second Tour appearance after his debut last year with the now defunct HTC team. These two new recruits along with the Englishman Steve Cummings have been added to the Tour roster at the expense of Brent Brookwater, Steve Morabito and Ivan Santaromita.
After two 2nd place finishes followed by two relative obscure Tours, Evans finally got the monkey of his back last year. Evans had been so close before and looked like once again playing the bridesmaid as the peloton rolled into Paris. 2011 was to be the year of Cadel and 2012 is shaping up as another year for Australian. With more time trial kilometres in this year’s edition of the Tour, the genuine climbers who have been seen as GC candidates have begun the race a little behind Evans as favourites to stand atop the podium in Paris. However Evans looks like his major rival will be the Englishman Bradley Wiggins who will carry top form into the Tour and is a real threat to Evans chances of back to back Tours. In the recent Critérium de Dauphiné Evans was bested by Wiggins in the crucial ITT stage by over a minute. On an almost identical course to the one that will raced during Stage 19 over 53.5kms, Evans cannot afford to lose that much time to a GC rival. Having his team built entirely around him and the knowledge that he is a bona fide Tour winner will be two crucial elements that Evans can draw upon. Whereas Wiggins will have his team’s support split between his yellow jersey ambitions and the green jersey ambitions of World Champion Mark Cavendish.
Steve Cummings, Michael Schär and Van Garderen are relatively inexperienced in the BMC squad as they line up for only their second Tour appearance. Compared to George Hincapie who will be making a record 17th appearance at the Tour, these three will benefit from Hincapie’s vast experience. Hincapie was the only Discovery rider who was alongside Lance Armstrong during all seven of his wins. If this was somehow not enough, Hincapie has gone on to ride on the 2007 Discovery team when Alberto won his first Tour and again in 2011 when Evans won his maiden Tour. Having been involved in 9 GC wins out of 16 appearances Hincapie brings a winning mentality to BMC that will again be crucial in Evans bid to defend his title as well as providing all the support that Evans will require for a second Tour win. The three new riders for BMC will also bring significant experience to the team even if they have had limited Tour experience; they still have genuine racing pedigree.
As one of the high profile recruits to BMC at the end of last season, Gilbert has had an underwhelming beginning to his BMC career. Maintaining the heights of last season was also going to be a tough ask for the Belgian but with the Tour beginning in his homeland, Gilbert looks prime for once again asserting himself upon the race. Gilbert is at the Tour to support Evans but when opportunities arise, and they seemingly always do for Gilbert, he will be given his chances to chase stage wins or jerseys. In the mountains Gilbert won’t be a primary support man; instead his role will be to protect Evans on the flatter stages.
In the mountains Evans looks to have a strong ally in Van Garderen. Van Garderen became the first American to wear the climber’s jersey in the 2011 Tour and if he can emulate his mountain form from last year, he will be a crucial component to Evans tilt at the Maillot Jaune. If opportunities arise for Van Garderen he will be allowed to take his chances but BMC will be telling him to measure any attack or effort that is taxing or it will cost Evans in the overall if his support is suffering fatigue. Along with van Garderen, Amaël Moinard will be a key rider throughout the mountain stages as well as an all round domestique. The BMC team is primarily a team of super domestiques but with Evans the leader and Hincapie bossing the peloton, the red and black of BMC will be constant feature of the 2012 Tour and may also include a little yellow when they role into Paris on the 22nd of July.
After two 2nd place finishes followed by two relative obscure Tours, Evans finally got the monkey of his back last year. Evans had been so close before and looked like once again playing the bridesmaid as the peloton rolled into Paris. 2011 was to be the year of Cadel and 2012 is shaping up as another year for Australian. With more time trial kilometres in this year’s edition of the Tour, the genuine climbers who have been seen as GC candidates have begun the race a little behind Evans as favourites to stand atop the podium in Paris. However Evans looks like his major rival will be the Englishman Bradley Wiggins who will carry top form into the Tour and is a real threat to Evans chances of back to back Tours. In the recent Critérium de Dauphiné Evans was bested by Wiggins in the crucial ITT stage by over a minute. On an almost identical course to the one that will raced during Stage 19 over 53.5kms, Evans cannot afford to lose that much time to a GC rival. Having his team built entirely around him and the knowledge that he is a bona fide Tour winner will be two crucial elements that Evans can draw upon. Whereas Wiggins will have his team’s support split between his yellow jersey ambitions and the green jersey ambitions of World Champion Mark Cavendish.
Steve Cummings, Michael Schär and Van Garderen are relatively inexperienced in the BMC squad as they line up for only their second Tour appearance. Compared to George Hincapie who will be making a record 17th appearance at the Tour, these three will benefit from Hincapie’s vast experience. Hincapie was the only Discovery rider who was alongside Lance Armstrong during all seven of his wins. If this was somehow not enough, Hincapie has gone on to ride on the 2007 Discovery team when Alberto won his first Tour and again in 2011 when Evans won his maiden Tour. Having been involved in 9 GC wins out of 16 appearances Hincapie brings a winning mentality to BMC that will again be crucial in Evans bid to defend his title as well as providing all the support that Evans will require for a second Tour win. The three new riders for BMC will also bring significant experience to the team even if they have had limited Tour experience; they still have genuine racing pedigree.
As one of the high profile recruits to BMC at the end of last season, Gilbert has had an underwhelming beginning to his BMC career. Maintaining the heights of last season was also going to be a tough ask for the Belgian but with the Tour beginning in his homeland, Gilbert looks prime for once again asserting himself upon the race. Gilbert is at the Tour to support Evans but when opportunities arise, and they seemingly always do for Gilbert, he will be given his chances to chase stage wins or jerseys. In the mountains Gilbert won’t be a primary support man; instead his role will be to protect Evans on the flatter stages.
In the mountains Evans looks to have a strong ally in Van Garderen. Van Garderen became the first American to wear the climber’s jersey in the 2011 Tour and if he can emulate his mountain form from last year, he will be a crucial component to Evans tilt at the Maillot Jaune. If opportunities arise for Van Garderen he will be allowed to take his chances but BMC will be telling him to measure any attack or effort that is taxing or it will cost Evans in the overall if his support is suffering fatigue. Along with van Garderen, Amaël Moinard will be a key rider throughout the mountain stages as well as an all round domestique. The BMC team is primarily a team of super domestiques but with Evans the leader and Hincapie bossing the peloton, the red and black of BMC will be constant feature of the 2012 Tour and may also include a little yellow when they role into Paris on the 22nd of July.
BMC 2012 Tour de France Team
Marcus Burghardt
Steve Cummings
Cadel Evans
Philippe Gilbert
George Hincapie
Amaël Moinard
Manuel Quinziato
Michael Schär
Tejay van Garderen
No comments:
Post a Comment