Two of cycling’s top UCI ProTeams have launched development teams which will help give guidance and opportunities to the next generation of riders. Details of both the BMC-Hincapie Sportswear and Leopard-Trek squads have emerged today, with the former giving complete details of its plans for next season.
The team will be registered in the USA as a UCI continental team and will feature under 23 riders. Backed by Hincapie Sportswear and BMC plus Holowesko Partners – which previously was involved with the Garmin/Slipstream setup - it will act as the official development program for the BMC Racing Team.
It comprises past riders from the former Hincapie-Holowesko Partners amateur development team, as well as some additional talented competitors. The full lineup features the Americans Alder Martz, Blair Turner, Isaac Enderline, Larry Warbasse, Matt Lipscomb, Michael Stone, Parker Kyzer, Tanner Putt, Tyler Karnes, Ty Magner, A.J. Meyer and Will Richter, as well as the Serbian riders Aleksa Velickovic and Jovan Zekavica.
According to current BMC Racing Team rider George Hincapie, a 16-time Tour de France competitor, the team should help riders who were in a similar position to him when he was starting. He said that is part of his motivation for getting involved.
“I strongly believe in supporting the next generation of cyclists,” he stated. “Without the help of development programs and folks like Jim Ochowicz guiding me as a new pro, I never could have gotten where I am today.”
Ochowicz is the current president of the BMC Racing Team and previously founded the 7-Eleven and Motorola squads which begain in the eighties and nineties, respectively. He started working with Hincapie when he gave him his first pro deal with Motorola, and says that helping develop more strong young riders is a goal for him.
“George and I have a long history together in cycling,” he stated. “We are both passionate about the sport and want to see it grow. It's only natural that BMC and Hincapie Sportswear join forces in creating a professional U23 program.”
The team will also be backed by Easton, Bell Sports, Giro Shoes, fi'zi:k, Oakley, Bonk Breaker, Park Tool and Road ID. Former 7-Eleven pro Thomas Craven will act as the chief sports director, drawing on his experience in the peloton.
Meanwhile it appears that the development team being set up in conjuction with the current Leopard-Trek team will most likely be called after the current title of the UCI ProTeam. Leopard-Trek’s elite squad will itself be renamed RadioShack-Nissan in 2012 but, as Cyclism’Actu noted, a tweet by the Fédération du Sport Cycliste Luxembourgeois today appeared to suggest the Continental team’s name will remain unchanged. It said that two Continental teams from the country were being registered for 2012, namely CCT Differdange and Leopard Trek.
The latter will be led by the talented Bob Jungels, who won the world junior championship last year. The Luxembourg rider performed well in his first senior season, finishing third overall and best young rider in the Fleche du Sud, netting second in the European championship time trial and winning the GP Francois Faber and Amay Haut events.
More details about the team lineup should be announced soon.