“Having our own under-23 team will give us the chance to develop the next generation of riders for the BMC Racing Team,” team president and general manager Jim Ochowicz said. “It's an opportunity to seek out our own riders and gradually bring them to the top level via our own program, our own system and our own philosophy.”
BMC owner Andy Rihs said that he had long planned such a move. “Now is the time to do it,. I think we'll have a lot of interest from top young riders and they will have a nice chance to profit from a successful team. In the long term, we have to think about who's going to succeed some of our more veteran riders. This gives us a chance to teach them how we do things, how we work and eventually become a dependable rider for us.”
The BMC U-23 Racing Team “will be a U.S.-based team racing on the international calendar,” Ochowicz said. "It will primarily be made up of athletes from the United States and Switzerland, but we'll also include talented individuals from other nations."
It will be fully suppored by BMC Switzerland. "I believe that it is essential for the sport of cycling to supporting and cultivating young riders," CEO Thomas Binggeli said. "At the same time, we can also benefit from their new and innovative ideas that may be implemented in our production processes."
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