New BMC sports director Valerio Piva is joining the American team with the intention of getting former world champion Philippe Gilbert back to his 2011 level and claims that the Belgian needs to race a little bit less than he has done in the past two seasons. The Italian sports director is also convinced that Cadel Evans can win the Giro d'Italia and that Tejay van Garderen is a future winner of the Tour de France.

Valerio Piva has been a highly successful sports director at HTC-Highroad and Katusha in the past few seasons and for 2014 the Italian has been signed by BMC in a quest to improve the performances of its many stars. Having recently finished his time with Katusha on a high with Joaquim Rodriguez' win in Il Lombardia, the Italian has already clear plans for the changes he plans to introduce in his new team.

Prior to the 2012 season, the team signed Philippe Gilbert who had been extremely dominant in 2011 and probably had the best season for any rider in the past decade. However, the Belgian has been unable to find his best legs in his first two seasons with the American team and the Belgian press has wondered why.

According to Piva, the main problem is that Gilbert has raced to much in his time with BMC. In 2011, he had 74 race days but in 2012 and 2013 he extended his schedule to 85 and 94 days respectively. He rode two grand tours - the Tour and Vuelta - while he only participated in the French race in his exceptional 2011 season.

"Philippe is a rider who can make a difference when he is at his best," Piva told Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview. "To return to the levels of two years ago, he will, however,  have to work hard and have a team to support him. And he should race a little bit less. He will start in Qatar and then rider Oman and Tirreno-Adriatico. Milan-Sanremo is his first big goal. In other years he has raced too much, now he should focus on the races he can win. There's no room for the cobbles if you want to target the Ardennes. He also has to skip the Giro and the Tour to prepare for the Worlds at the Vuelta."

While BMC has failed to reach the expected heights in the one-day races, they have had more success in the grand tours. Cadel Evans won the Tour in 2011, Tejay van Garderen was 5th and won the white jersey in the 2012 Tour de France and Evans was 3rd in this year's Giro. However, both riders failed in this year's Tour where the team had a very disappointing race.

Next year van Garderen will be the designated captain in the Tour while Evans - albeit a bit reluctantly - has accepted to focus on the Giro. Piva is still convinced that the Australian veteran has a grand tour win in his legs.

"I am convinced that he can still perform at one hundred percent," Piva said. "With Cadel, we will ride the Giro d'Italia to win. Van Garderen won the Tour of California and has already taken a fifth place in the Tour at 23 years of age. I am convinced that he will one day take the yellow jersey."

Another of the team's star riders is former world champion Alessandro Ballan who returned to his best in 2012 when he finished on the podium in both the Tour of Flanders and the Paris-Roubaix. However, he had a bad crash in December and barely raced in 2013.

Piva is still hopeful that his compatriot can find his former level.

"Alessandro is an unknown for the whole team," he said. "In 2013, he had a great challenge but is now fine hopes to maintain his good health. On the cobbles, he was a leader. Now we need to evaluate his status and his competitive form at the first camp [in Denia, December 10-18] ."

While other teams have invested heavily in young talents, BMC has mostly signed established stars who had started their careers on other teams. The team is now trying to develop its own riders and has signed contracts with neo-pros Rick Zabel and Silvain Dillier for 2014.

"There are a dozen contracts that expire at the end of the year and we must evaluate all riders carefully as we need to rejuvenate our team," he said. "We can learn from Cannondale who have found riders with a great future: Sagan, Moser, Mohoric."

After a disappointing start, BMC had a good end of the season and won 30 races in 2013.