BMC Racing Team have won the last two USA Pro Challenge events with Tejay van Garderen and even though he isn’t racing in 2015, in Rohan Dennis, Damiano Caruso and Brent Bookwalter, the team has three potential winners in its line-up.
"I think we’ll be looking to play a similar role in Colorado as we did here (in Utah). We don’t have a clear favourite for the GC, but we’ll be present in all the stages and be looking for a high overall result," Brent Bookwalter, third overall in Utah, told Cyclingnews.
The three GC men are joined by Americans Taylor Phinney and Peter Stetina, both on the comeback trail from severe injuries, young climber, Manuel Senni, loyal domestique Michael Schar and stagiaire Killan Frankiny.
Bookwalter says the course is really open and the climbs in Colorado aren’t as steep as the ones in Utah, although Colorado as a whole will be raced at a higher altitude than Utah, which makes the race hard. Due to the nature of the course, Bookwlater says the time trial is likely to decide the race.
"In Colorado the climbs aren’t as steep, but the elevation is higher overall," he said. "The key component there is the time trial. Traditionally in Colorado it’s a little bit more tactical and more pack racing, if you will, on the climbs, and then it really comes down to the time trial."
"In the past we’ve had Tejay, and he’s shown that he’s the pro in that Vail TT, but we won’t have Tejay this year and we also don’t have the Vail TT," Bookwalter said. "I haven’t seen a specific start list, but I think it’s going to be a really open race. Any team that’s going to succeed there is going to need to be a deep team because it’s a little more tactical racing."
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