On Wednesday, the organiser of the Tour de Suisse has extended a wildcard to the Swiss-American BMC Racing Team. The Pro Conti squad had already secured multiple prestigious invitations this year, including wildcards to the upcoming Criterium International and the Tour of Romandie. Expectations for a Swiss invitation were high, but nobody on the team was taking anything for granted.
"When you are not a ProTour team you are never sure of an invitation," directeur sportif John Lelangue said after hearing of the news. "But even though we do not have a big name leader," Lelangue explained, "we have Alex Moos who has performed at a high level for many years, and we also have three of the brightest young Swiss riders on our roster."
Lelangue was sure to bring a motivated team to the Tour of Switzerland. "On a sporting level the tours of Romandie and Switzerland are historic races," he added. "They are also ProTour races, so our Swiss team members will be interested in showing their skills in front of a home crowd, and our American riders will be interested in gaining experience and confidence racing against the big guns of the European peloton."
At this point in the team's growth, their philosophy is not to have one main leader, but rather to work as a team and race aggressively. "We are not planning on winning the overall," Lelangue said, "but we will certainly bring our best team with the ambition to be an animator and attack the race head on."
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