BMC – easy as ABC?
BMC Racing’s sports director, Max Sciandri, insisted that that Phinney’s victory – and second place for his British team-mate, Steve Cummings – was not achieved without careful planning and faultless execution, although less partial observers might note a general classification in which the margin separating the top three changed only by a single second from stages one to four. Having established a race-winning advantage on stage one, BMC rode flawlessly to maintain its grip on the general classification.
Is this a sign that the American team, one of the WorldTour peloton’s best-funded outfits, will this year deliver on its considerable promise? After a largely barren 2013, its riders have hit the ground running this year. Cadel Evans looked close to his formidable best at last month’s Tour Down Under and is likely to start the Giro d’Italia – his stated aim for the year – among the favourites.
New signing, Darwin Atapuma, a Colombian climbing specialist, showed early promise at the Tour de San Luis, and tomrrow’s opening stage of the Tour of Qatar will see the team’s likely line-up for the Classics roll out together for the first time in 2014, with former world road race champion, Philippe Gilbert, and Marcus Burghardt, Greg Van Avermaet, and Michael Schar among those rostered. Their performance will be monitored closely, not least by the peloton’s other heavyweights, Team Sky, Movistar, and Omega Pharma-QuickStep.
