BMC in Gran Canaria

It seems such a long time ago now that I was pedalling in the sunshine on the beautiful, if you avoid the tourist traps of Maspalomas and Puerto Rico, Island of Gran Canaria. As I sit here in our apartment above Macarini Cycles, whom are one of Hennebont Cyclisme’s many sponsors, watching the rain come down, listening to Definitely Maybe (you can’t leave it all behind) and hoping that my riding shoes will dry out for tomorrows undoubtedly wet training ride my mind wanders to that distance Island off the coast of Africa where I got the opportunity to ride some amazing bikes, with equally amazing people under the guise as a ride guide. In fact if the definition of being a professional cyclist is that you get paid to ride your bike, then dam I have already made it, well for a period this February I had, call it a stagiere contract which never got extended if you will.

For those of you who closely follow Pro bike racing the brand BMC has had mixed fortunes having, through the sponsorship of various teams, employed riders such as Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis and Vinokurov to ride their steeds. After the success and corresponding failure of sponsoring such riders, I think you all know what I am alluding to, BMC took a back step in the world of bike sponsorship but after last year title sponsoring its own Continental level team, in 2010 it is looking to make a serious impact in all the big races thanks to the signings of riders such as Cadel Evans, George Hincapie and Allessandro Ballan and to coincide with such an increase in sponsorship investment comes a range of new models in both the road and mtb categories, which brings me nicely round to why I was being paid to ride a BMC in Gran Canaria.

The ‘2010 BMC Ride Camp’ was an opportunity for BMC’s top European based dealers and distributors to try out the new range, so that they could get to know the products better and provide feedback on the bikes, useful information for any bike company especially considering the quality of some of the riders present…I won’t boast on the palmares of some of the guys I rode with, but ex Giro, Tour and Vuelta riders were all present along with one of Laurent Fignon’s top equippers. So what was a Master of Engineering graduate who had decided to give it all up to race his bike in France doing here, well I had the not very daunting task of leading group rides, getting the opportunity to try the road range myself all whilst being paid, with the inevitable grin on my face that comes from being in such a situation.

This may sound like an easy deal for all involved, but along with all the fun and games, and believe me there was a lot, a lot of hard work was involved for everyone employed by this operation, from the mechanics who arrived 2 days before the first guests and had the unenviable task of unpacking and building the 90 bikes shipped out for the project in one massive container, which then had to be correspondingly re packed at the end of the project, to myself and my fellow ride guide and teammate Phil Gale who would leave our apartment we were staying in every morning at around 7:30am and not return until 9:30pm having fitted around 5-6hrs riding in between, but boy was it a blast, the bike wasn’t bad either.

The BMC boys having an obligatory Coffee stop-one of the things that really stood out for me during my time with BMC was the fact that the group were more than just colleagues, they were all really good mates, which made my life a whole lot easier, that and the sun!

The centre piece of BMC’s range for anyone with a preference to riding on the road was undoubtedly the new range topping Team Machine, which Team BMC will be rolling out on soon, rumour even has it that if it is dry at Paris Roubaix Ballan will be riding one with a set of deep section carbon wheels surely a testament to its vertical compliancy. I was privileged enough to be able to ride one of these for the duration of the trip and without going into the technical detail as this can all be found on BMC’s own website, I can honestly say it is the best bike I have ever ridden, incredibly stiff whilst maintaining a vertical compliance normally associated with frames made from other materials such as titanium, it was a real drag to have to give it back, but alas I had to, annoyingly the Swiss precision that created this masterpiece of bike engineering also meant all the bikes were counted out and counted in at the end of the project…bugger! The Team Machine really is a quality product that should leave the small Swiss brand punching above its weight in the world market place.

But enough of dreaming about sunnier times and better bikes, it’s still raining and it’s time for me to make some dinner. I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone I met at the BMC camp for such a great couple of weeks and allowing me to try out some amazing products, but particularly and in no particular order, Stephan, Marcus, Steven, Patrick, Mike, Frank, Steven, Manuel, Eric and Alberto.