Tour de France - Evans's BMC included for Tour

Reuters - Tue, 30 Mar 11:07:00 2010

Cadel Evans's gamble to sign with BMC paid off as the world champion's team were picked by organisers to take part in this year's Tour de France.

2009 Cadel Evans - 0

BMC are one of 22 teams that will start the race on July 3 in Rotterdam, along with seven-times champion Lance Armstrong's RadioShack and Briton Bradley Wiggins's Team Sky.

"While I was never sure we would be in the Tour, I did not have much doubt that we would be left out, as I felt our team deserved to be in the Tour de France," Evans said in a statement.

Wiggins, fourth in last year's Tour before signing for Team Sky in December, said in a statement; "I'm hugely proud to be in a British-based team taking on the Tour de France and I'm convinced we'll leave our mark."

Sixteen teams, including holder Alberto Contador's Astana, were assured of a place in the Tour under a 2008-2010 agreement.

"From 2011, according to an agreement between grand Tours organisers and the International Cycling Union, the first 17 teams in the world rankings at the end of 2010... will be automatically selected," Amaury Sport Organisation said in a statement.

BMC are not part of the ProTour, the elite of world cycling, and therefore were not guaranteed a place in the Tour.

However, they made it almost impossible for organisers to leave them out by signing Australian Evans, former world champion Alessandro Ballan and the experienced George Hincapie.

Last year, Evans was part of the Silence-Lotto team (now Omega Pharma-Lotto), one of the 16 with a guaranteed place in the Tour.

Organisers left out Dutch team Vacansoleil, the outfit of France's Brice Feillu, who won a mountain stage in Arcalis in last year's edition. France's Saur Sojasun were also left out.

Teams: AG2R La Mondiale, Astana, Bbox Bouygues Telecom, Caisse d'Epargne, Cofidis, HTC-Columbia, Euskaltel, Francaise des Jeux, Footon-Servetto, Lampre, Liquigas-Doimo, Milram, Quick Step, Rabobank, Saxo Bank, Omega Pharma-Lotto, Garmin-Transitions, Katusha, Cervelo Test Team, RadioShack, Team Sky, BMC.

Reuters

Comment 1 - 14 of 14

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  1. I agree with Comment No 1 - not only were Vaconsoliel­ part sponsors of Paris Nice but they were on the attack­ every day - the Fiellu brothers will be peed off big­ time.

    Who is in Footon Servetto? - can anyone remember­ anything they have done?

    From Bikefan, on Fri 2 Apr 20:34

  2. Let's hope that this year will be about the cycling­ and not the twunt Pharmastrong.

    The real competition­ will be Schleck/Contador

    From H C, on Thu 1 Apr 5:51

  3. NICE TO SEE THE ORGANISER'S OF LE'TOUR HAVE­ INVITED THE NEW TEAMS IN THIS YEAR, GREAT TO SEE THIS,­ SHOULD BE GOOD.

    From malcolm c, on Thu 1 Apr 0:59

  4. This year's tour is going to be great, with these 3­ new talented teams getting in on the act. Hopefully­ Edvald Boasson Hagen will be able to match Cavendish­ and Hushovd in the Sprints, while there is the contest­ everyone is looking forward to between Armstrong and­ Contador. This will be a classic to remember!

    From Peter, on Wed 31 Mar 23:17

  5. @seby_pricop If you read to the end you'll see­ that this article was written by Reuters and not­ Eurosport...

    From therealblazinsaddles, on Wed 31 Mar 23:16

  6. Agree with you CR...CE is much better....look forward­ to seeing Wiggo and the Sky team perform too..

    From Scotty, on Wed 31 Mar 14:30

  7. can eurosport write a cycling article without­ mentioning the name of the 1000 times tdf winner lance­ armstrong ??

    From seby_pricop, on Wed 31 Mar 10:10

  8. One thing for certain Vacansoleil will mighty pi**ed­ after shelling out to sponser a lot of the Paris Nice­ which is also run by the ASO, Oh Dear........

    From discopopped, on Wed 31 Mar 6:28

  9. David S - entirely agree. Politics? Or the impact of­ their outfit (as jmiketaylor suggests!)

    From Norrie, on Wed 31 Mar 5:36

  10. Footon-Servetto should be disallowed for that­ disgusting kit.

    From Mike Taylor, on Wed 31 Mar 2:25

  11. Of course! A clean team, with clean riders. A good team­ with good contenders. 'tis a win-win for ASO.

    From Azriel, on Wed 31 Mar 1:55

  12. Tdf would have been less interesting without­ Evans....­ and his dog.

    From p, on Wed 31 Mar 1:47

  13. Good news. Tdf would have been less interesting without­ Evans.

    From veksleri, on Wed 31 Mar 1:39

  14. I just cannot believe that Vacansoleil have been left­ out! every race I have seen them in they have a rider­ who is doing well, can anybody tell me why Footon­ Servetto merit a spot?

    From discopopped, on Wed 31 Mar 1:37
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