Having two Grand Tour candidates in a single team is a great problem to have and also an advantage, according to BMC Racing’s Jim Ochowicz, who signed Richie Porte to the team’s roster for 2016.
The signing means that for the first time in two seasons BMC will have two potential Grand Tour leaders - the Australian and Tejay van Garderen. Both riders have similar characteristics in that they both time trial well, and can also perform doggedly in the mountains. Van Garderen has cracked the Tour de France top five on two occasions - although he abandoned this year - while Porte has spent his Tour campaigns riding for Chris Froome over the last few seasons.
The Australian has, however, established himself as a serious week-long stage racer and looked on course for a high place overall at the Giro this year until he was struck by injury. Although he has yet to finish in the top five of a Grand Tour, Ochowicz believes that his new recruit gives the squad options in stages races.
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One of the main tasks for the team management will be designing and designating race programmes between the two riders. Both may want to ride and lead at the Tour de France - a scenario that failed to yield success for BMC in 2013 when they went into the race with van Garderen and Cadel Evans at the helm – but with the Giro and Tour routes set to be announced this month Ochowicz and his staff will have to define clear paths for both his GC leaders.
“It’s way to early to put that on the plate yet. We’re obviously waiting to see what the courses are like for the Giro, Tour and the Vuelta,” Ochowicz told Cyclingnews before the World Championships.
“We’ve heard rumours like everyone else about time trials at the Giro and a few at the Tour but we’re not sure about anything yet. We want to examine those courses first and then we need to have a sit with Richie and Tejay and decide on which direction we’re going to take with each of them based on what they did this year, a little bit, and who did what races.”
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