Team to target Worlds, Tour de France and Classics next season
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That's a happy BMC team(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Philippe Gilbert of the BMC team celebrates as he crosses the finish line under heavy rain to win the 12th stage of the 98th Giro d'Italia.
BMC owner Andy Rihs(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The BMC Racing Team prepares for 2016 in Spain(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing) is aiming for the Tour de France in 2016(Image credit: Daniel Benson)
BMC Racing have confirmed that they will extend their future in the WorldTour beyond 2016. The American-registered team had a WorldTour licence until the end of 2016 but no future plans had been set beyond that date.
The team have now confirmed that they will have a future, although they would not state how long the terms of the agreement with, bike manufacturer, BMC and its owner Andy Rihs would run for.
“We continue to make our bicycles, so I think it’s the best way to promote cycling, besides all of the fun and excitement and passion we have with the riders and the organization. We will continue to do what we have done every year. We try to win again at the Tour de France, we try to win the classics, and that makes it exciting for everybody,” Rihs stated.
“We have always been thinking long term with our program throughout the years as we continue to develop our organization. We are excited about this opportunity and look forward to the future,” the team’s general manager Jim Ochowicz confirmed to the press at their training camp in Spain.
“The last two weeks have been very productive in as many ways as I can mention. Up until this point today we have accomplished all of our objectives with the December camp. We’ll all be leaving here this weekend and if everything continues to go as planned, we’ll be on our way to the holidays and then into our first competition in Australia in January.”
The team also confirmed their aspirations for 2016. Along with targeting the win at the Tour de France with either Richie Porte or Tejay Van Garderen the team will also look to win a Classic, rank in the top three of the UCI WorldTour, an defend their UCI World team time trial championship.
“The goals for 2016 are on four fronts. The first is that we want to be in the top three on the WorldTour team rankings at the end of the season because that reflects consistent performances in all of the WorldTour races. We are a team that focuses on the classics so we would like to win a classic. We would also like to, with one of our two GC riders (van Garderen and Porte), win the Tour de France and our fourth goal is to defend our past two years’ Team Time Trial title at the World Championships.”
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Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
