Brent Bookwalter returns from injury, while Steve Morabito hoping to improve on last year’s twelfth place
The BMC Racing Team is looking forward to the Amgen Tour of California, which starts in South Lake Tahoe this coming Sunday, sending a strongly US team to its home race. The team’s headquarters is in Santa Rosa, CA and so will hope for a good showing on its home roads.
US time trial champion Taylor Phinney has fully recovered from the crash that saw him sit out the Classics, and will be riding his first edition of the Californian Tour. He will be joined by compatriots Jeff Louder, Brent Bookwalter and three-time national champion George Hincapie, who has taken three stages in the event, as well as finishing fourth in 2006. The team’s general classification rider will be the Swiss Steve Morabito though, who hopes to improve on his twelfth place in the race last year.
"He's riding with the best climbers, but the real key for him will be to race a good time trial," said the team’s assistant director Michael Sayers.
In last year’s edition Morabito was 45th in the 33.6km test in Los Angeles, costing him 3’33” of the 4’40” that he eventually finished behind overall race winner Michael Rogers (then of HTC-Columbia). An improved performance this year, in the shorter Solvang stage, should see him achieve a better overall position.
The race will mark a return to the peloton for Bookwalter, who broke his collarbone in a crash during the final stage of the Volta a Catalunya in late March. Needless to say, the 27-year-old fro Athens, GA is looking forward to the US race.
"I've been feeling better and better each week," he said. "It's no secret which stages will be most decisive, but I'm sure there will be some twists and turns and unexpected things along the way."
BMC Racing Team for Amgen Tour of California:
Brent Bookwalter, Yannick Eijssen, George Hincapie, Jeff Louder, Amaël Moinard, Steve Morabito, Taylor Phinney, Tim Roe.