Burghardt ready to move on at BMC

Marcus Burghardt is preparing to start a new stage in his career, as he gets ready to ride for BMC Racing Team in 2010. The German had spent all five of his pro years with T-Mobile and then Columbia-HTC.

“I can tell how the time flies by, or shall I say, sprints by,” the 26-year-old said on his website, marcus-burghardt.com. “They were good years, in which I learned a lot. There were highs and lows, as every athlete experiences.”

His first career highlight was “unquestionably” winning Gent-Wevelgem in 2007, the same year he made his Tour de France debut. That race featured again in 2008, when Burghardt won the 18th stage in a two-man escape, “an absolute top result. I wish every cyclist could have something like that as reward for his diligence and discipline in training.”

Not everything has gone as wished in his career. Knee problems threw him back in 2006 and 2008. and the past season also didn’t go as planned. Not being nominated for the Tour de France was a hard blow for him.

He rode just a handful of top races towards the end of the season, but denied that it was because his team did not want him to ride, he insisted. Rather, illness caused him to miss racing.

Burghardt is now looking forward to his time with US-based BMC. He will start the year off with a training camp on Mallorca with his trainer before heading for the team's training camp in California.

The German will not ride the Tour Down Under, “because I have major problems with adjusting to the difference,” so he will start with the Tours of Qatar and Oman. The early part of the season will then feature the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and Tirreno-Adriatico.