The BMC team finished off their winter camp in Denia, Spain by unveiling their team goals for 2016, some of them very achievable, dome of them difficult but still possible to obtain: defending the world team time trial championship, win a monument, finish among the top-three in the end-of-season team ranking and win the Tour de France.

While the first three are possible thanks to BMC’s success in team time trials in 2014 and 2015, their star studded roster can score points easily and they have riders like Gilbert and Van Avermaet who can win Monuments, many baulked at the Tour win. It seems the only peole backing either Richie Porte or Tejay van Garderen to win is the team themselves.

“As a team, we’ve won the Tour with Cadel [Evans in 2011], so we know how to manage the race, and we know how to win,” manager Jim Ochowicz told VeloNews. “We know that Tejay and Richie haven’t been on the podium, but we believe they’re capable of that, and maybe even more. It’s better to set the bar high.” 

“It’s better to aim for the top than already set lower goals,” Ochowicz said. “And we think those are all realistic goals.”

Both Porte and van Garderen echoed this statement, saying they fully believed they could win the race and to enter with anything less than the desire to win the Tour would be undermining the team.