The 2010 season for the BMC Racing Team began in January with the Tour Down Under and ended in October at the Giro di Lombardia. As they did in 2009, competes in 2010 as a UCI Professional Continental team with wildcard status, meaning they are eligible to be invited to any UCI ProTour event.
After three seasons as a United States-based Pro Continental team with a limited presence elsewhere in the world, BMC made numerous high-profile acquisitions in the 2009 offseason, including the last two world cycling champions in Alessandro Ballan and Cadel Evans. The team also added six other riders who were members of ProTour teams in 2009 including 2009 U.S. Road Race Champion George Hincapie.
This has assured them a greater presence in higher-profile races, evidenced by the fact they were granted the first-ever wildcard entry to the Tour Down Under and invited to the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France.
2010 roster
Ages as of January 1, 2010
†Though listed on the team's roster, Nydam is not cleared to race and did not ride competitively in 2010.
Riders who joined the team for the 2010 season
Riders who left the team during or after the 2009 season
One-day races
Spring classics
Cadel Evans won the La Flèche Wallonne, riding past Alberto Contador in the final meters of the race to take the victory. Evans also finished 5th in the Liège–Bastogne–Liège.
Additionally, George Hincapie placed 4th in the Gent–Wevelgem and 6th in the 2010 Tour of Flanders, with Karsten Kroon finishing 9th in the Amstel Gold Race
Fall races
Stage races
BMC raced the Tour Down Under as the first non-Pro Tour team (aside from the Australian national team) to receive an invite. This was likely to allow Evans to ride with the rainbow jersey in his home nation. Evans figured in winning breakaways in two stages, including the race's queen stage to Willunga, but did not emerge with any victories, finishing 6th.
Evans also finished 3rd in the Tirreno Adriatico, and 6th in the Critérium International.
Chad Beyer won the Sprints (Points) Classification at the 2010 Tour de Romandie, having held the Jersey for the entire race.
BMC had a successful Tour de Suisse, Steve Morabito finishing 4th overall, with Marcus Burghart winning the Points Classification and Mathias Frank winning both the King of the Mountain and the Sprints Classifications.
Grand Tours
Giro d'Italia
Alessandro Ballan stated in October 2009 that it was a certainty that he would start the Giro d'Italia after missing out on it in 2009 when he wore the rainbow jersey. This was an indication that the team was in line for an invite, which they received. He was eventually withheld from competition by BMC while they investigated claims regarding his time at Lampre - the timing coincided with the Giro so he did not compete.
Evans led the squad and wore bib number one by virtue of being the reigning world champion. Evans and Santambrogio were the only riders on the squad to have previously ridden in a Grand Tour. The team showed very well in the stage 1 individual time trial. Bookwalter was a major surprise on the day, setting a provisional best time early in the stage that ended up just 2 seconds slower than stage winner Bradley Wiggins'. Evans also rode well in this stage, with the same time as Bookwalter, for third. The next day, Evans made a selection after a crash close to the stage's finish line and finished with the leaders. Neither previous race leader Wiggins nor Bookwalter did, so Evans took the pink jersey for stage 3. The team did not try to hold the jersey, and it passed to Alexander Vinokourov the next day. In the stage 4 team time trial, the team set an early provisional best time, but they were bettered by stronger squads as the day went on and finished 12th.
After the next two stages went to breakaways, stage 7 was one that proved important in the race's overall picture. It was long, and contested partly on unpaved roads, and happened to be run on a day with very heavy rain. After overnight race leader Vincenzo Nibali experienced a mechanical issue that necessitated a bike change, Evans and Damiano Cunego responded to an attack from Vinokourov, and stayed away to the stage's finish in Montalcino. Evans won the three-man sprint for the stage, with a 2-second gap. In stage 11, the Giro's longest, more than fifty riders took a 20-minute lead on the peloton before any real chase began. Bookwalter was originally in this group, but the team's manager called him back to the peloton to help Evans and make a pace. The peloton still finished 13 minutes behind the stage winner, leading to massive re-shuffling of the overall standings.