BMC Racing Team General Manager Jim Ochowicz was unable to confirm to Cyclingnews on Tuesday that the US-registered WorldTour team will continue past the 2018 season after Swiss media reported that team benefactor Andy Rihs will end his support following next year.
Ochowicz was responding to a report in Swiss newspaper 24 Heures, which suggested that backing from billionaire BMC owner Rihs will finally end after the 2018 season following several years of annual renewal. The newspaper reported that the long-term future of the BMC Racing will be decided in the spring and summer of 2018, according to Marc Biver, the former Astana team manager who claimed to be leading the search for new backers of the team captained by Richie Porte and Greg Van Avermaet.
Ochowicz, who confirmed Biver's role on the organisation's sales staff, said Biver's comments to 24 Heures represented his own opinion and that Biver did not speak for the team or for Rihs.
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"We're still in the planning phases in a lot of places on a lot of different scenarios, too many scenarios to actually say that everything is 100 per cent in place," Ochowicz told Cyclingnews from the team's training camp in Spain. "But I can tell you that the motivation to continue with a program at the same level that we're at today is our ultimate objective, and we're on our way to completing that."
BMC began as a US-based Continental team and joined the WorldTour in 2011 when Cadel Evans won the Tour de France. They have continued to be one of the leading WorldTour teams in the peloton, with Van Avermaet leading the Classics squad and Porte targeting the Tour de France and other stage races.
With unconfirmed reports about Rihs' ill-health, Biver told 24 Heures he is searching hard for new sponsors to help cover the team's reported €21 million budget.
Budget savings
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