Roster Ruminations, Part II – BMC and Garmin-Sharp

Team BMC has one main goal for this year’s TDF: to reclaim the Yellow Jersey for Cadel Evans, the General Classification (GC) winner from 2011.  The meat & potatoes of the roster are  Brent Bookwalter, Marcus Burghardt, Amaël Moinard, Steve Morabito, Manuel Quinziato and Michael Schär.  They may not be household names, but they are six of the proven domestiques from that 2011 team.  Cadel Evans refers to Quinziato, Burghardt and Schär as his “Guardian Angels.”  The 2013 team should be stronger than in 2011 by the addition of reigning world road champion Philippe Gilbert and Tejay van Garderen, last year’s White Jersey (young rider) winner and champion from the recent Tour of California.

Missing the cut, but listed as an alternate, is TDF veteran Thor Hushovd, who just last week won the Norwegian road race national championship.  The luxury of having such a high-caliber rider listed as only an alternate!  Another alternate who would easily make most other rosters is rising Swiss star Mathias Frank, who wore the yellow jersey for much of the race, but eventually finished in 5^th place in the recent Tour de Suisse. 

Don’t expect BMC to chase stage wins, or other prizes.  Tejay van Garderen is still eligible for the White Jersey, but will sacrifice it, if needed, to help Evans reclaim the Yellow.  The price he must pay to work his way to the top spot in the years ahead.  Philippe Gilbert has often chased individual glory, but he too plans to make Cadel’s success his top priority.

Team Garmin-Sharp is taking more of a shotgun approach this year.  With three former TDF top-ten finishers (Ryder Hesjedal, Tom Danielson and Christian Vande Velde), three proven stage and race winners (Dan Martin, David Millar and Ramunas Navardauskus), and three rookies (Andrew Talansky, Jack Bauer and Rohan Dennis) , they expect to provide excitement, without limiting themselves to “all or nothing.”  Ryder Hesjedal may be the presumptive GC captain, but the team’s strategy will be to leave that door open for others, and to pursue whatever GC opportunities present themselves, hoping for a high placement by someone – whoever gets hot.  They also plan to look for stage win opportunities, so look for them to aggressively join the escape groups whenever possible. 

But they appear to have conceded the bunch sprint wars to Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma Quickstep) and Peter Sagan (Cannondale), since their so-called “fastest American sprinter,” Tyler Farrar, did not make the cut!  This in spite of his bio on the team website stating: “For 2013 Farrar will be focusing on more Grand Tour sprint wins, including the Tour de France.”  I guess that also means he won’t be contending for the Lanterne Rouge this year either.  We’ll miss you, Tyler.

Other familiar Garmin riders (TDF veterans all) watching this year’s Tour from the sidelines are David Zabriskie, Johan Vansummeren, and Robbie Hunter.  With no Zabriskie and no Levi Leipheimer, Salt Lake City will have no favorite sons in this year’s Tour.