Philippe Gilbert (BMC) has been cleared to ride the Vuelta a Espana following his crash in the penultimate stage of the Eneco Tour. The Belgian spearheads a BMC roster that doesn't contain any of the team's other stars.

Philippe Gilbert has planned to repeat last year's successful autumn season when he won two Vuelta stages and the world championships to put a good end to an otherwise disappointing season. The Vuelta will once again form the backbone in the preparation of his worlds campaign.

However, it almost came to nothing when he crashed on the penultimate stage of the Eneco Tour. He got six stitches in a deep wound on his left knee and has been unable to train since. This has forced BMC to postpone the selection of their Vuelta roster but Gilbert has not arrived in Spain and made the final tests which have cleared him to participate in the race.

 "After some manual therapy of the physiotherapist, I did a session on the trainer," Gilbert said. "Despite some pain, it was possible to ride. After this, we decided to try on the road, where I was able to ride for one hour. At this moment, I am not able to put out power while I am pedaling, but hopefully this will be the next step. We will try tomorrow."

While Gilbert will try to recover during the first part of the race and potentially target a stage win later in the race, Italian champion Ivan Santaromita and Dominik Nerz have set their sights on the mountain stages and are likely to be the team's two GC contenders. Santaromita took a beautiful win in his national championships and said at the time that he would love to test himself in a grand tour as he prepares to move to Orica-GreenEdge next season. Nerz recently did a good ride in the Tour de Pologne where they finished in the top 15.

Young Belgian climber Yannick Eijssen will get his grand tour debut on the back of a very strong showing in the Tour of Utah where he finished 3rd on the queen stage. He has had a tough first time as a professional but has finally found the racing rhythm.

Danilo Wyss and Klaas Lodewyck will form the team's duo of sprinters and they will be supported by neo-professional Sebastian Lander who will make his grand tour debut. Italian time trial champion Marco Pinotti will target the time trial while also preparing for the world championships. Former Swiss champion Martin Kohler completes the roster.

The Vuelta starts on Saturday with a team time trial in Galicia.

BMC for the Vuelta a Espana

Philippe Gilbert, Martin Kohler, Marco Pinotti, Danilo Wyss, Klaas Lodewyck, Sebastian Lander, Dominik Nerz, Ivan Santaromita and Yannick Eijssen.