Team UPlace-BMC unveiled
Much has changed with Team UPlace-BMC for 2014 – a greater number of athletes, a more international feel, excellent winning potential and new team colors. The last few years the team in green was a very national Belgian squad with quite a few Belgian sponsors, including a Belgian bike sponsor. But that already changed in 2013 when Swiss brand BMC stepped up to support this team. Of the 2013 team 3 athletes were resigned and 7 new athletes were added to the roster and they brought quite a few wins to the team. The Belgian UPlace brand led by Bart Verhaeghe returns as a key sponsor plus BMC is much more involved now and unlike in previous years where they focused on individual athletes, they want to pursue the team model just as they had on the road an in MTB. The goal is to have a super professional setup with more support and in the end better results.
We spent time with the team at the Sands Beach Resort in Lanzarote about 10 days ago and had been teasing this launch, and now that we are revealing the names of the team members maybe you are now able to match the calves to the athletes on the team. The only team member not present at the camp was Ronnie Schildknecht. He was at home in Switzerland with his wife who gave birth right at that time.
2014 Team UPlace-BMC roster
New to the team:
Dirk Bockel (LUX)
Will Clarke (GBR)
Guillaume Romain (FRA)
Ronnie Schildknecht (SUI)
Liz Blatchford (GBR)
Corinne Abraham (GBR)
Helle Frederiksen (DEN)
Returning are:
Bart Aernouts (BEL)
Axel Zeebroek (BEL)
Sofie Goos (BEL)
The team is managed by Bob and Ben De Wolf and has a great infrastructure of supporters and sponsors.
Check out this video: UplaceBMCTri intro
You can follow the team here:
www.facebook.com/uplacebmctri
www.twitter.com/uplacebmctri
www.instagram.com/uplacebmctri
www.pinterest.com/uplacebmctri
www.youtube.com/uplacebmctri
All images © Herbert Krabel / slowtwitch.com
Dirk Bockel brings quite a bit of experience to the team and here he is in the middle of a workout at Sands Beach in Lanzarote.
French Pro Guillaume Romain should add some nice fire power to the team on the 70.3 distance.
Helle Frederiksen from Denmark will be very tough on a variety of distances.
Olympian Axel Zeebroek from Belgium is reunited again with Dirk Bockel on this squad.
The first few days of the camp Frederiksen still was involved with a training camp of athletes she coaches.
Liz Blatchford finished third in Kona in 2013 and much is expected from this very fast Brit.
One nice morning 6 of the athletes went out for a team ride. They eventually split up as they had different distances on schedule.
Bockel and Zeenbroek lead Blatchford, Clarke, Abraham and Guillaume.
On this side of the island the wind really picked up.
Axel Zeebroek is cresting this climb ahead of Dirk Bockel and Corinne Abraham.
It looked like Will Clarke had no problem fitting in and much is expected from this relative recent ITU convert.
Rolling through small towns on Lanzarote in team formation.
The team competes on the BMC TM01 bikes and the camp was used to dial in the bikes especially for the new members.
Corinne Abraham was injured late last year after a fine win in Melbourne, but we should see more of her this year.
Time for Liz Blatchford to go on a run.
Axel Zeebroek running along the coast of Costa Teguise.
Sofie Goos is one of 3 Belgians of this former all Belgian team.
Romaine Romain working on his core.
Time to get out for Bart Aernouts.
Axel Zeebroek and Dirk Bockel have known each other for a long time now.
