A conversation with ... Team BMC's Jim Ochowicz
There are few people who have been more active in shaping American cycling over the past quarter century than Jim Ochowicz. The man known to friends simply as “Och” was a member of the U.S. Olympic men’s pursuit team at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and managed the 7-Eleven team that began in 1981 and morphed into Motorola in 1991. He spent time as president of USA Cycling, from 2002 through 2008, and is the godfather to Lance Armstrong’s firstborn son, Luke.
In addition to currently serving on the UCI’s road commission, Ochowicz is also the president of Team BMC, and was instrumental in signing world champion Cadel Evans, as well as George Hincapie, Marcus Burghardt, Karsten Kroon and 2008 world champ Alessandro Ballan.
The addition of so many ProTour stars is a big jump for the team, which emerged as an American continental team in 2007 as a second attempt for Swiss team owner Andy Rihs — owner of BMC Bicycles as well as Phonak Hearing Systems — to back a pro squad after Floyd Landis’ positive test for elevated testosterone ratios at the 2006 Tour de France ended the Phonak sponsorship.
BMC Bicycles continued at the ProTour level in 2007, sponsoring Astana, but when Alex Vinokourov and Andrey Kashechkin tested positive, Rihs pulled the sponsorship and channeled his passion for the sport into the developing American team based in Santa Rosa, California, and initially led by former pro Gavin Chilcott.
Since then the team has brought on former Phonak director John Lelangue as a director, in 2008, and former BMC rider Mike Sayers as an assistant director in 2009. Meanwhile Ochowicz’s title has evolved, from team liaison to team president.
VeloNews caught up with Ochowicz shortly after the news of Evans’ signing to talk about the team’s quickly evolving goals for 2010, and his own evolving role within the team.
VeloNews: Having the rainbow jersey and a grand tour contender on the squad is pretty big news for Team BMC.
Jim Ochowicz: It’s gigantic, it gives a lot of meaning to our organization, and with it obviously comes a lot of responsibility, a lot of goal-setting that we’re committed to. We see it as a great opportunity and partnership with a really talented individual who has proven himself time and again in the grand tour setting, which is something we’re very interested in.
VN: From the outside it seems as though Evans signed on pretty quickly.
JO: With deals like this, if they hang in the wind they often end up falling apart. When you are in a transaction like that, there are a lot of moving pieces, and if you are trying to expedite it you want to get it over with as fast as you can.
VN: How quickly did the deal come together?
JO: When you are prospecting for players, at any time you have a list of riders you’re looking at. It can be months, or weeks, but the process usually starts a month or so before it’s announced. We have people on our list that we’re interested in that may not be available until 2012. We’re constantly prospecting for people that might fit, so it’s really a never-ending process
VN:It seems as though there aren’t very many people that saw this coming.
JO: I think we were the same with everyone. There wasn’t too much chatter with us signing Ballan, or other riders, either. We keep things within the organization pretty close. We’re all working together to do the right thing, trying to get these deals done. We can’t be broadcasting who we’re talking to.
VN: It’s no secret that Evans’ relationship with Silence-Lotto went sour at the Tour this year. Was that ever a concern for BMC?
JO: I have no idea how he ended that relationship. Silence is a great team. They’ve shown their competitive side throughout the season. I have no comments about Silence or their relationship with Cadel.
VN: Have you known Evans in the past?
JO: No, just from reputation. He’s not someone I had ever dealt with before, no.
VN: Over the past few years we’ve seen Team BMC taking gradual steps towards becoming a ProTour team, and the team wasn’t shy about its hopes of entering the Tour de France in 2011. How much does signing Evans accelerate that long-term development plan?
JO: It really began with our signing George Hincapie. He made a serious commitment on his part coming to the team, even though we couldn’t guarantee participation at the Tour or really any ProTour event. As we continued to strategize and find opportunities with existing players we started to build our program. Every time we turned a corner we were closer to our objectives. With this last move it really puts us right at the doorstep.
VN: How much did signing Evans have to do with the team truly wanting to reach the podium of a grand tour, versus the cachet that the rainbow jersey brings in terms of getting invitations to almost any race?
JO: We didn’t have a grand tour contender before Cadel. We were planning to compete in a grand tour next year, that was imminent in 2010, and this has added another element. With Cadel we know we have a true contender. I think with the roster we have right now we can expect an invitation to just about any race, from a performance standpoint. We are a team that can compete, and as an organizer that’s what you want. Invites come as a result of a race organizer’s review of the wild card teams. I think the selection will be done not just on our roster, but also on our reputation. That will have some bearing.
VN:This is the second year in a row we’ve seen a Continental Professional team sign a major star; last year it was Cervélo signing Carlos Sastre, who was then Tour de France champion. Now BMC has signed the world champion. It almost seems as if it’s a workaround, or alternative, to registering with the UCI ProTour. In both cases the team is likely to be invited to most events it hopes to participate in, but doesn’t have to pay ProTour registration fees, and isn’t required to send a squad to every ProTour event.
JO: It was not our intent to deliberately bypass ProTour status. We missed the ProTour deadlines, because we weren’t anywhere near with our roster. As the season carried on, our signings continued, up through last weekend. We certainly weren’t trying to avoid ProTour status. We’ll take a look at it for 2011.
VN:What can you tell me about your position with the team? Earlier this year you were listed as the sponsor liaison, but you are now referred to as team president. How new is that role?
JO: It’s not all that new, it happened some time this year, earlier on. We took a look at my role and thought that I wasn’t really sponsor liaison, I am more the person looking at the big picture for the organization, and with that trying to implement that vision with my relationships with people in the sport. The title goes with the territory.
VN:How does the team’s step up for 2010 affect the rest of the team management? Will Gavin Chilcott continue to serve as team manager, and John Lelangue continue as team director? And how about Mike Sayers, who was recently brought on as a director?
JO: Yes, everyone’s roles are the same, just elevated, with more responsibility. Everyone is capable in their space, we’re pleased with where we are, with Gavin as general manager, John Lelangue as director, and Mike Sayers coming on full time. We are increasing our staff on all levels as result of a larger calendar. Bringing on Cadel will require more staffing, and more work, because we’re hoping to add the Tour de France to our calendar. That means additional staff, additional training camps, and some specific stage reconnaissance. We’d already scheduled a grand tour, so we were preparing in that sense for one, now we’re going to have to shoot for two. It adds some work, but we are prepared. We’ll fill in the gaps. We’re fortunate to have a lot of people that like to work with us. We’re looking forward to the challenge
VN:Clearly there’s been a major increase in the team’s budget for 2010. Where is that money coming from?
JO: BMC is our sponsor. Andy Rihs takes on the majority of expenditure for the team.
VN:With Cadel Evans on the team, BMC now has one of the few riders capable of winning the Tour de France. Yet you are very close with Lance Armstrong, as is George Hincapie. What will that be like for you, running an organization that may go head-to-head with Armstrong at the Tour?
JO: Lance has watched the progression of this team as everyone else as. Within his own organization he has built a strong team around himself as well. He certainly has proven and capable riders and staff working with him, many are friends of ours as well. We see it as an opportunity for all of us to find chances to win races. We’re not making promises that we are going to take on the world. We’ll do what we are capable of. They’ve been there more than we have, so we’ll follow their lead and hope we all come out winners.
VN:Will the team continued to be based out of Santa Rosa? And what sort of team presence can we expect to see in North America?
JO: We are looking at the NRC schedule now. We support an under-23 program, and throughout the years we have used the domestic calendar as a place to showcase the team from time to time. It’s a place for riders to come back to racing before they go directly to Europe, and it’s also been a place for people to recover from illness or injuries and not just be thrown back into European events. So we’ll continue to look at domestic racing as important. There’s still a lot of things up in the air, there’s a lot of activity still happening. The 2010 calendar for us is not done yet, whereas in most cases, most teams that qualify for races have those plans in place already. There are a lot of moving pieces. I’m sure we’ll have more to talk about in January.
VN:When you say there are still a lot of moving pieces, does that mean we might see the team sign another big name? Or does the addition of Evans complete the roster?
JO: You never know. We are happy with what we have. I wouldn’t speculate. We are very satisfied, with Cadel, and with all these guys. I’m overwhelmed, we’re all so happy and very eager to get into the racing season and see what we can do.