BMC Racing Team riders and staff members have a secret weapon for quickly navigating race venues and running errands while on the UCI WorldTour: BMC urbanchallenge commuter bikes. These speedy and practical bikes are ideal for a busy race team because they feature a low-maintenance belt drive instead of a chain. “The BMC urbanchallenges are fantastic because you can just hop on and go without having to worry about cleaning or lubing a chain,” says Kate Ochowicz, marketing director for the BMC Racing Team. The BMC Racing Team rides these fashionable and speedy belt drive bikes thanks to a partnership with Gates Corporation, maker of the Gates Carbon Drive system for bicycles.Gates is an official supplier of the BMC Racing Team and supplies the squad with BMC Lifestyle bikes featuring Gates Carbon Drive. The BMC Racing Team is the only UCI ProTeam team with an official lifestyle/commuter bike. BMC urbanchallenges will be on BMC Racing Team trucks in Europe and the United States for the second straight season. Team racers getting new bikes in 2013 include Tejay van Garderen and Marco Pinotti, along with staff members including mechanics, communications and marketing and management executives. “This partnership with BMC Racing Team is great for Gates Carbon Drive because it exposes our technology to a large audience of racing fans who may be seeking commuter bikes for their daily life,” says Greg Vigil, vice president of marketing for Gates. “We hope that when race fans and road cyclists shop for a commuter bike they will consider the low-maintenance and clean advantages of Carbon Drive and purchase a BMC urbanchallenge.” "We ride the fastest racing bikes, so it is appropriate that we also have the coolest commuter bikes on the UCI WorldTour,” says BMC Racing Team President/General Manager Jim Ochowicz.
Attractive, fast and light, the BMC urbanchallenge, also known as the UC01, features a lightweight iSC alloy frame, carbon fork, disc brakes, internally geared hub, fenders, lights and Gates Carbon Drive. The bike comes in an 11-speed and eight-speed version. The BMC urbanchallenge is the showpiece of BMC’s Lifestyle line, launched with the goal of producing the most advanced and appealing transportation bikes.