For Thor Hushovd and Philippe Gilbert the move to BMC offered the opportunity for both riders to change objectives and complete the goals they both had as professional cyclists. For Hushovd 2011 had been a success where he honoured the rainbow stripes in the most magnificent way by winning stages and wearing yellow for six stages. His Garmin team had won the Stage 2 TTT by just 4 seconds over BMC which meant Hushovd was in yellow with a lead of milliseconds over teammate David Millar and one second over Cadel Evans. Hushovd maintained his one second buffer over Evans until Stage 9 and after his stint in yellow showed off the world champion jersey by winning both Stage 13 and 16. The first week of the Tour was animated by Cadel Evans and his Stage 4 victory, Philippe Gilbert swapping his Belgium national jersey for yellow, green and polka dots and Hushovd looking resplendent in yellow. The magnificent Tour that they all had in 2011 was not to be repeated in 2012 for any of them now that they were all riding for one team.
The season begun for BMC in Australia at the Tour Down Under were the team had its initial success. Martin Kohler pulled on the leaders Ochre jersey after Stage 2 which he lost the next day before regaining it after Stage 4 and again pulling on the Ochre. Adam Blythe wore the young riders jersey on Stage 2 of the Tour of Oman to add another jersey to BMC’s 202 palmares. The next success came at the Tour of Oman in February with Klass Lodewyck winning the combative classification for the team. Tejay Van Garderen won another classification for the team by taking home the Young Riders Classification at Paris-Nice, a classification he led for the entirety of the race. The first stage win wasn’t to be until March at the Critérium International where Cadel Evans took Stage 2, the overall victory and the Points Classification. The success the team had in the early months of the season was encouraging but the two stars that BMC signed in hope of sweeping the Ardennes and the cobbled Classics amounted to almost nothing.
Hushovd has had a season to forget, severely hampered by a virus that has seen him play no part in races since the Giro. The signing of Hushovd was in hope the Norwegian could provide BMC with their first cobbled classic. Evans won the first classic for team in 2010 at La Flèche Wallonne but that remains the only Classic win so far. Hushovd and Gilbert have both won Classics in the past and they were to be the riders who would add to the lone Classic. Hushovd finished 14th at Paris-Roubaix after missing the break and was unable to match the power of Tom Boonen. Hushovd has regularly said that winning Paris-Roubaix is a season goal and after an extended rest in 2012 he will be targeting both Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders to add to his Palmares.
The Classics weren’t a total mishap for BMC however as Alessandro Ballan was a major protagonists at Paris-Roubaix and Flanders while Gilbert made the podium at La Flèche Wallonne. However these results were rather underwhelming for a team who set their sights on dominating the classics from Milan-San Remo till Liège–Bastogne–Liège in April. The investment the team had made in Hushovd and Gilbert was looking a little shambolic as the riders were criticised for their poor form with many suggesting that the large pay packets they were receiving had nullified any incentive to chase victories. Ballan had several top ten finishes at the Classics but with only one win at the Giro di Toscana.
At Milan-San Remo Ballan finished in the group behind Simon Gerrans two seconds off the pace. Ballan backed up his eighth placing with ninth place at E3 Harelbeke which was followed by fourth at Strade Bianche. It was the cobbles of Flanders and Roubaix where Ballan had some success for BMC as he finished third in both races behind Tom Boonen. Ballan didn’t challenge for the win in either of the races but had done enough to earn a podium being just behind the dominant Boonen who no one was even close to.
Gilbert fared better than Hushovd at the Ardennes but he was never going to replicate his clean sweep of 2011. Gilbert finished third at La Flèche Wallonne and sixth at Amstel Gold Race. He didn’t enter Liège–Bastogne–Liège and had lowly finishes at San-Remo and Flanders where he had finished third twice at both races. For Gilbert it wasn’t until September that he finally found some form and laid the platform for his World Championships win. 2012 was always going to be about the World for Gilbert and for the entirety of the year he was the unshakable favourite even during his form slump. Gilbert couldn’t repeat his victories at either the Belgian road race or ITT national championships but after the success of his 2012 it was always going to be hard to repeat such heroics. Gilbert had also been brought into BMC in order to help out Evans at the Tour but just as Hushovd and Gilbert had indifferent seasons so did the defending Tour winner.
Evans had decided that in order to defend his Tour title he would focus solely on July and go back to back. That meant a following a similar racing schedule to 2011 although it became apparent that Evans was not in the same shape as he was the previous year. His success at the Critérium International was an early season highlight but it was to be his only overall victory in 2012. Evans went mano e mano with Bradley Wiggins at the Critérium de Dauphiné in what was a preview of the Tour de France. Evans took a stage win and the points classification but finished third 1:26 behind Wiggins which was to be a sign of a disrupted schedule due to a sinus infection.
With the team focused on helping Evans win a second Tour, riders were notching up victories along the way. With Evans focused on the Tour BMC went into the Giro with a team focused on stage wins rather than a tilt at the GC. This approach paid off immediately as Taylor Phinney unexpectedly won the opening Stage 1 in Denmark and wore the maglia rosa for three days. To top off the stage win and stint in the leaders jersey, Pinotti won the final ITT around Milan as BMC took the first and last stages of the Giro.
For the second time Cadel Evans was the riding the Tour wearing the number one dossard on his back. When Alberto Contador was persona non grata in 2008 after signing with the Astana team, Evans entered the 2008 Tour not only as a favourite but also wearing number one. In 2012 Evans was again a favourite but the length of ITT kms didn’t play to his strengths. With Contador and Andy Schleck missing from the race it looked like the Tour was to be a two man affair with Evans up against the might of Wiggins and Team Sky. Evans had a disappointing Tour as he was on the back foot immediately following the Prologue in Liège and he only continued to lose time. Evans managed to finish a credible seventh on GC but was over 15 minutes behind Wiggins in Paris.
With Evans failing to achieve his season’s goal which was apparent during the Tour, Tejay Van Garderen was hyped as being the successor to Evans at BMC. Van Garderen became the third American to win the young riders classification as he finished in fifth position at just over 11 minutes behind Evans. This was a sign that Van Garderen has arrived as he provided a season highlight for BMC and second year in which the team won a jersey classification at the Tour.
With the teams focus on bringing home yellow failing and another barren year in the Classics the Vuelta offered an opportunity for a late season resurgence. After the Tour there were some notable results with wins at The Tour of Austria (Pinotti), Paris-Corrèze (Adam Blyth), Johann Tschopp won the overall and Stage 5 at the Tour of Utah as Phinney and Van Garderen won stages at the USA Procycling Challenge to add some gloss to 2012. With the world championships getting nearer and no resurgence in Gilbert’s form, the Belgian was looking like he may have gone through the season winless.
Taking a similar approach to the Vuelta as they did with the Giro, BMC had another successful grand tour in 2012. When Gilbert won Stage 1 of the 2011 Tour he became another rider to have won a stage at all three Gran Tours as he had previously won two stages at the Vuelta and single Giro stage. In 2012 just as the season appeared to be a write off, Gilbert snared two stages wins as he won Stage 9 and 19. As well as the two stages Gilbert was also the most aggressive rider on Stage 3 as he begun to look like the rider of 2011. Along with Gilbert’s breakthrough wins another BMC rider had their first win of the season at the Vuelta as Steve Cummings won his maiden Grand Tour stage as won with a sole attack on Stage 13. He then added Stage 5 at the Tour of Beijing securing some more UCI World Tour points for the team and another win to add to his palmares at BMC. A final flourish at the end of the season was also a breakthrough win for Adam Blythe at Binche-Tournai-Binche which is his biggest won so far at BMC.
BMC finished in 7th place on the UCI World Tour teams ranking thanks to Evans, Ballan, Van Garderen, Greg Van Avermaet and Gilbert. Van Avermaet didn’t win a race in 2012 but consistently finished in the top ten at World Tour races picking up points for the team. At the world championships the Team Time Trial was an addition to the proceedings in 2012. After Phinney placed fourth in the road race and ITT at the London Olympic Games he was included in the team along with Gilbert, Van Garderen, Pinotti, Ballan and Manuel Quinziato which finished just 3.23 seconds behind Omega Pharma-Quick Step. A miscommunication on the Mur de Huy cost the team the gold medal with second place a sign of the team’s almost there season. Gilbert capped off his first year at BMC with the gold medal in the World Championships and becomes the fourth world champion on BMC’s books. Although not a BMC win, his win at Valkenburg has been a blessing to BMC and partly saved the season after a disappointing beginning.
Top Five Results
Giro d'Italia Stage 1 Taylor Phinney
Giro d'Italia Stage 21 Marco Pinotti
Young Riders Classification Tour de France Tejay Van Garderen
Vuelta de España Stage 9/19 Philippe Gilbert
Vuelta de España Stage 13 Steve Cummings
Disappointing Riders: The disappointments of 2012 have largely been the failure of Hushovd, Gilbert and Evans to deliver results at the high levels that they set in recent years. Hushovd’s season is almost a complete write off and he will be keen to forget the season and pick up where he left off in 2011. For Gilbert the win at Valkenburg has been a saving grace for the Belgian as well as his Vuelta stage wins but his disappointing Ardennes campaign cannot be overlooked. The standard that Gilbert has set in recent seasons and his numerous wins makes his season at the least, underwhelming. Wearing the rainbow stripes in 2013 will be a confidence boost and there is no doubt that Gilbert will be raring to go and be dreaming of crossing the line first at La Flèche Wallonne, Amstel Gold Race and Liège -Bastogne-Liège.
Breakthrough Riders: BMC has had several riders fill the void where its big stars have faltered. Ballan had his best season for BMC as he began to show the form that took him to a win at Flanders in 2007 and the 2008 World Championships. After Ballan had top ten finishes in April and was a shining light when Hushovd and Gilbert faltered. Steve Cummings had a late season flourish and will have a bigger part to play in BMC’s plans for 2013 and will look to add to his two stage wins this season. Taylor Phinney also had a breakthrough Olympics which was a continuation of his BMC form. In ITT’s Phinney won stages at the Giro, USA Procycling Challenge and was part of team which won the Giro di Trentino TTT. Another young American star in 2012 was Tejay Van Garderen whose seasons highlight was winning the young riders classification at the Tour. Evans has been endorsed as the sole leader at the 2013 Tour but there is a chance Van Garderen could be co-leader in 2013. One more up and coming rider is Englishman Adam Blythe who like Cummings had two wins in 2012 and looks like he’ll be an impressive one day racer in future seasons.
How 2013 Looks: The fallout of the USADA investigation into the doping practices of US Postal/Discovery and Lance Armstrong reached BMC where George Hincapie admitted to doping during his time on the US Postal team. Hincapie is now in retirement but has still received a six month ban for his admission of doping and has had his results from May 31st 2004 till 31 July 2006 annulled. Hincapie has said he never doped while on BMC and BMC hasn’t been implicated besides Hincapie in the doping scandal.
With the retirement of George Hincapie BMC will have three ex world champions on its books, Mark Cavendish is the only World Champion since 2008 not to be riding for the team. BMC are one of only a few teams who honour past national and world champions by having flags or the rainbow stripes on the arm and neck of the riders jerseys. BMC will be in a strange position then with Hincapie gone as the only riders on the road with this honour will be world champions. Hincapie was an ex USA national champion. For a team to have one world champion on its books is an honour but for BMC to have three and the current world champion is quite an achievement. Therefore BMC will have three former world champions with rainbow bands around their arms but no ex national champions. In ITT’s Marco Pinotti will wear the Italian flag on his arms while Phinney as ex USA champ will have the stars and stripes but both riders can only wear their respective flags in the ITT.
A fit Hushovd will be a blessing in the spring as BMC chase a cobbled classic before Gilbert in the rainbow stripes will look for at least one Ardennes Classic. If either of these riders can take home a classic it will provide a platform for success later in the season. Any win will take pressure of the GC aspirations of Evans as the unveiling of the 2013 Tour was to the liking of the Australian. Depending on the results and racing schedules of 2013 Van Garderen may find himself as a protected rider at either the Giro or Vuelta. With five Grand Tour stage wins 2012 has been a success but with BMC setting clear objective for its riders, more will be expected in 2013 of its big stars and its younger riders will attempt to build on impressive 2012 seasons.
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