In 2005, the BMC Racing Team got its start when former professional road and mountain biker Gavin Chilcott began organizing an Under 23 Team. Through a series of fortuitous connections involving Charlie Livermore, Jim Ochowicz and Andy Rihs, BMC agreed to join the project as its title sponsor. The following year, the operational arm of the team was founded – Continuum Sports LLC – and the BMC Racing Team was headquartered out of Santa Rosa, California.
Soon, many names that are still associated with the BMC Racing Team today came on board, including riders Brent Bookwalter, Martin Kohler and Danilo Wyss, Scott Nydam and Michael Sayers (then as riders). Management expertise also grew, with the recruitment of sport director John Lelangue and other key management and operational staff that are still with the team today. As a pro continental team, the squad grabbed the spotlight at a number of races including the 2008 Amgen Tour of California, where Nydam won the King of the Mountains classification, in addition to making it’s debut at a number of significant European races.
In late 2009, the BMC Racing Team took a big step toward becoming one of the most visible teams in the world when it recruited then-reigning U.S. national road champion George Hincapie, one of America’s most iconic cyclists, for the 2010 season. Even bigger steps followed, including recruitment of then-reigning world road champion Cadel Evans, along with former world road champion Alessandro Ballan. A permanent European infrastructure was established and intensive preparations for the 2010 season began. The influx of top talent in 2010 led to stand-out performances on the international stage during the spring and berths in both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, where Evans took the lead for one day at each race.
The following year, the BMC Racing Team added two-time Under 23 world champion (and then-reigning U.S. national time trial champion) Taylor Phinney while achieving UCI ProTeam status. This paved the way for the first U.S.-registered team to earn cycling's greatest prize, as Evans won the Tour de France and the BMC Racing Team finished fifth in the UCI WorldTour team standings.
In 2012, the BMC Racing Team registered 21 victories, including two stage wins at the Giro d'Italia and three at the Vuelta a España. Tejay van Garderen (fifth) and Evans (seventh) finished in the top 10 at the Tour de France as van Garderen earned best young rider honors. Philippe Gilbert (riding for Belgium) capped the season by winning the world road championship while Taylor Phinney was runner-up in the individual time trial and the BMC Racing Team earned the silver medal in the team time trial.
