Velo-Club went to meet Damien Garcia at the end of the year. The opportunity for us to quickly return to the 2024 season of Burgos-BH. But also to look at 2025, and in particular the challenges for Spanish training.
Can you first give us a quick assessment of the 2024 Burgos-BH season?
The 2024 season was an excellent one for the team, including 13 road wins. It was a great season, complete too since we won in January, we then showed great things on the World-Tour events for a team of our level, and we came close to victory in French races in the spring. A more than positive result for the team.
To look ahead a little, can you first tell us about your new role in the team?
I will be responsible for the sports directors, while continuing to occupy this role of DS during the season. I will just have more responsibilities, particularly in terms of the calendar, since I will be in charge of its organization. Whether for the runners, the staff, or the races and the hunt for invitations. I will also have a coordination role between the different components of the team.
Do you feel more pressure about that?
Not really, because I've always tended to put pressure on myself. It's more enthusiasm than pressure in the end.
How do you build a Pro Team squad in terms of recruitment?
We first tried to recruit a little younger, by taking no less than 4 riders from our development team, Cortizo. Among them we find the winner of the Spanish Cup in the U23 category, but also the U23 national champion. Then to these young people we added experienced riders, like Merhawi Kudus, who is also there for the UCI points aspect.
We can sometimes read that Burgos recruits “points runners”, is this something that is assumed?
Points runners yes and no. We certainly follow the system, but our overall performances this year proved us right, since we finished in the top 30 UCI, while collecting 13 victories. More than points runners, I would say that they are competent runners, also capable of shining in Europe.
You were talking about the top 30, this will be the minimum to apply for the Vuelta in 2026, does that change a lot?
We will say that the noose is tightening. The top 40 left us a margin that we have less in a top 30. For us it is almost an obligation to be in the latter. Even if I think it is a largely achievable objective given the quality of our squad next year.
Does this top 30 goal force you to optimize your schedule even more?
Yes, we definitely look at the calendar a little more. But above all for us, the idea is for the guys to be on level. The objective is to win races, and the points will come afterwards.
Even more than the points, the major objective is necessarily the Vuelta, right?
Here again, everything is not closely linked I think, because if we are invited to the Vuelta, we will inevitably score points. In any case, we will do everything to convince you to invite us to the departure from Turin next year.
The race for invitations is always complex, is for Pro Teams, like Burgos, Bardiani, Polti, etc., 24 teams on the Grand Tours something desirable?
In the interest of our team, it would be preferable if we could go up to 24, but it is the UCI which decides the rules, and we must of course respect them.
You mentioned it, it's the UCI which decides, what do you think of their proposal to give road points for disciplines like Cyclo-Cross or Track?
It's complicated, on the one hand we had specialists with Burgos (Sebastian Mora is world champion on track), but on the other hand, we only know that if the points start to count, it's the teams with the more resources that will be able to recruit specialists.
By Charles Marsault
