Additional Wild Cards awarded to the BMC Racing Team

November 18th, 2009 by Al Fresco 378 views No Comment

BMC can look forward to starting next year with a very impressive schedule. After the Organizers of the Tour Down Under in Australia extended a Wild Card invitation to the BMC Racing Team for the 2010 edition, two additional invitations have arrived.

“We are extremely happy that the organizers for the Tour of Qatar (7th to the 12th of February) and the Tour of Oman (14th to the 19th of February) have invited us to their races for the 2010 season. These are two perfect stage races with which to begin our assault on the new season,” explained Directeur Sportif John Lelangue.

Four continents in six weeks

This will be the third year in a row that the BMC Racing Team has received an invitation from the ASO and Eddy Merckx to take part in the Tour of Qatar. The team will repay their confidence by sending a particularly strong squad.

“The team for Qatar will most likely be led by riders Alessandro Ballan and Marcus Burghardt. And with John Murphy, we will have an excellent sprinter present,” Lelangue is pleased to report.

For the team’s first participation at the Tour of Oman, Brent Bookwalter should be their man for the general classification.

“The Oman parcours is substantially more selective than Qatar, and the final time trial is particularly suited for Brent,” explained Lelangue who looks on the start to the new season with confidence and has every expectation that it will be an exciting and very international one for the BMC Racing team. “Within six weeks our team will be present on four continents.”

“The January training camp takes place in California. In the same month we will participate at the Tour Down Under in Australia. In February we will find ourselves on the Asian continent for Qatar and Oman, as well as start our first races in Europe.”