Former professional cyclist Yvon Ledanois will join the BMC Racing Team for the 2013 season as an assistant director, President/General Manager Jim Ochowicz announced Monday.
Past Vuelta Stage Winner Ledanois raced professionally from 1990 to 2001 for teams that included Castorama, WordPerfect, Gan and Française des Jeux. He counts a stage of the 1997 Vuelta a España among his victories. He comes to the BMC Racing Team from the Movistar Team, where he served as a sport director. “Yvon brings with him a wealth of experience to the BMC Racing Team, having directed teams at the Grand Tours and WorldTour races over the past few years,” Ochowicz said. “We are pleased to have him joining our group of sports directors for the upcoming season.” Ochowicz said Ledanois will work closely with BMC Racing Team Directeur Sportif John Lelangue and direct the team in anumber of one-week stage races, as well as at the Vuelta a España.
Great Opportunity
The desire for a new challenge is what attracted Ledanois to the BMC Racing Team, he said. “Having managed major talents such as Alejandro Valverde and Óscar Pereiro and having spent eight years in Movistar, I have the will to discover a different way of working,” he said. “I took this as a great opportunity. Jim’s offer appealed to me, and I’m really excited with the idea of working in tandem with John. I hope to bring my experience for the benefit of the team and it can be in combination with John and joining directors Max Sciandri and Fabio Baldato, whom I have known since our own racing days. I sincerely believe that there is a huge potential in the team to make great results in the Tour de France and other races and I’m excited about this new adventure.”
Vast Experience
Lelangue said Ledanois’s own racing background and knowledge of the sport came to mind when he was looking for a third director to replace Rik Verbrugghe, who will next year be overseeing the BMC Racing Team’s development program. “Yvon is already an experienced sport director and he’s been with Caisse dEpargne and Movistar in many stage races,” Lelangue said. “He’s also got a lot of experience with Spanish cycling and those races and riders, especially the WorldTour calendar races in Spain like Cataluyna, País Vasco and the Vuelta. He will also be working with me on some of the French races, naturally, because he is French.”
