With the recent signings of World Champion Cadel Evans, Alessandro Ballan, and George Hincapie, Marcus Burghardt, Karsten Kroon and company, the BMC Racing team has positioned itself for a strong European campaign next season. Now the UCI Pro Continental squad has confirmed that it has also beefed up its team of sports directors.
As speculated over the weekend, former professional cyclist Fabio Baldato has been confirmed as an Assistant Directeur Sportif for the American formation. Also joining Baldato is experienced Swiss René Savary. Both Baldato, and Savary have signed a one year contract with the team.
"Fabio brings a wealth of experience to the team for both the Historic and the Classic races. Additionally he will be a great asset during our racing campaign in Italy next season," BMC Racing Team President Jim Ochowicz commented.
Baldato retired from Lampre last season after a successful career that lasted 18 years. The Italian has a wealth of experience, winning stages in the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, and placing second in the Tour of Flanders (1995,1996), Paris-Roubaix (1994) and Milan-Sanremo (2000). In total, Baldato has more than 40 wins as a professional, and would bring valuable insight to the team.
"The BMC team already seems at a high level," said Baldato of his new team.
Ochowicz also sees the inclusion of Savary as particularly important: “Rene has years of experience working with professional cyclist on the professional circuit and at the Olympic level. He will be a valuable asset to our group of directors.”
Mike Sayers who joined the team as Assistant Directeur Sportif for the USA earlier this year has also extended his contract with the team.
The team's Head Directeur Sportif, John Lelangue, is extremely pleased with the strong new additions to his team.
“I am naturally very happy to have three such competent assistants. Mike will be focused on the American riders and our U23 project, Fabio will be our man for the Classics and Italian races, and René will be most involved in the development and recruitment of our young Swiss riders.”
While René Savary, who already assisted John Lelangue at 2009 at the Dauphiné Libéré and the Tour de Romandie, and Mike Sayers both have several years of experience within the BMC system, for Fabio Baldato the move to BMC as a director marks the beginning of a new stage in his career.