The American outfit won the event in Ponferrada last year and will start among the heavy favourites on Sunday’s 38.8km test in Richmond, Virginia, having triumphed in the discipline at the Critérium du Dauphiné and Tour de France recently.
Rohan Dennis, Silvan Dillier, Stefan Küng, Daniel Oss, Taylor Phinney and Manuel Quinziato are the men who will form the red and black train, with Peter Velits the first reserve.
Dennis, Dillier, Oss and Quinziato all powered BMC to the gold medal last year. Velits did too, and has been part of the winning team in each of three years the event has been run having triumphed with Etixx-QuickStep in 2012 and 2013.
"We started with the six riders who were part of the winning team last year,” said team trainer Marco Pinotti, explaining the selection process.
“Two of them were not available: Tejay van Garderen, unluckily, had an injury in the Vuelta a España and Peter was good at the Vuelta but not at his top level yet. The other four are in good form, so we needed to replace those two. Phinney and Küng have recovered fully from their injuries, so they replaced them."
Phinney was part of BMC’s team time trial squads in 2012 and 2013 but was sidelined last year by his career-threatening injury, from which he has only recently returned. Küng, the reigning world individual pursuit champion on the track, will be making his first appearance in the event.
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"Last year, we won without being the favorite. So this year we have more pressure. It is the first time that we are the favorite,” said Quinziato. “It is good for the morale and for the confidence, but it makes things harder because we really have to be focused and ready to suffer as much as last year."
BMC for World Championships TTT: Rohan Dennis (AUS), Silvan Dillier (SUI), Stefan Küng (SUI), Daniel Oss (ITA), Taylor Phinney (USA), Manuel Quinziato (ITA). Reserve: Peter Velits (SVK)
