Pro Cycling
Who's Afraid of BMC?
The emergence of the intimidating super team is wreaking havoc on the pro peloton.
ByJames Startt
Comments
(0)
In the 1980s the La Vie Claire team, with the financial clout of French businessman Bernard Tapie, brought together top Tour de France talents Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond. The team's dominance forced others to follow. But only certain could.
This year we have seen the metamorphosis of the BMC Racing Team from a solid squad into what will likely be the sport’s most talent-laden outfit in 2012. Backed by Swiss businessman Andy Rihs, it is estimated that the team is operating with a budget 25% to 30% greater than most top WorldTour teams, hence allowing them to employ Tour de France champion Cadel Evans, top classics riders Philippe Gilbert, and current world champion Thor Hushovd, as well as riders such as the young and promising Tejay Van Garderen and Taylor Phinney.
Cadel Evans' goal of winning a second Tour de France in 2012 got easier with the signing of riders such as world champion Thor Hushovd and the world's No. 1, Philippe Gilbert. (James Startt)
The team's rise to power has shaken the sport, as several other WorldTour teams have been forced to merge, in part, in an effort to keep up.
“With BMC, the big chief has big money and gets most of the big riders. We’ve seen it before; the budgets just keep going up,” said Herman Frison, the Belgian director who guided the world’s No. 1 rider, Philippe Gilbert, to his great wins this year, only to lose much of his team when Gilbert signed with BMC and the Omega Pharma sponsor announced in August that it would leave the Belgian Lotto team to join its rival Quickstep in 2012.
And then came news of the merger between the Luxembourg team Leopard-Trek and the American RadioShack squad for next season.
That merger of course unites Frank and Andy Schleck with many of the top riders from RadioShack as well as team director Johan Bruyneel, who guided Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador to nine Tour de France titles combined. But it also threatens to leave many riders out of work. Mathematically, it is just not possible to keep all riders and staff employed.
“It's definitely been the topic of conversation,” American David Zabriskie told Bicycling.com while he was participating in Canada's WorldTour races in Quebec and Montreal last week.
BMC will be a tough act to follow with the most talented roster in 2012. (Wil Matthews)
And indeed riders and staff from both teams have been left hanging. “We have heard nothing; we know nothing,” said one staff member from Leopard-Trek who preferred not to be identified.
“I have a contract for next year, but I don’t know that it will be honored,” said another rider who wished to remain anonymous.
“If you want to fight a team like BMC, with the budget and structure that they have, you have to have the strength," said RadioShack team director Alain Gallopin. "You’ve got to put together a team that is as strong and as complete as they are. And the fusion of RadioShack and Leopard-Trek will definitely be reinforced for the Tour de France.
“But such fusions always create problems for the staff and riders without contracts. It's always been like that.”
Gallopin himself said that officially he still does not know if he will be part of the new project but most expect that he will. After all, the Schleck brothers worked with him on the CSC team, until 2007, and he is widely considered the best tactical directors in cycling.
“You just have to look at the roster to get an idea of the budget. It’s got to be somewhat colossal. They have Cadel Evans, who just won the Tour. Then you’ve got Philippe Gilbert and Thor Hushovd. That’s a lot of big salaries,” Gallopin said.
But while the 2012 BMC team threatens to dominate all the classics as well as the Tour de France, history has shown that money alone cannot win races.
The mighty ONCE and Mapei teams, for example, in the 1990s, won plenty of classics and even Tours of Italy and Spain. But although they possessed the biggest budgets in the sport, they never won the Tour.
“Can they work together? That's my question,” Frison said. “This year we did not have the best team, but all the riders sacrificed themselves for Gilbert. That’s my question. Together can the guys work?”
