PARIS, March 17, 2010 (AFP) – Reigning world champion Cadel Evans has been left off his BMC team’s roster for Saturday’s Milan-San Remo, the first one-day classic of the season.

Evans, a two-time runner-up on the Tour de France, showed his early season form by finishing third overall Sunday in Italy’s Tirreno-Adriatico stage race.

However BMC will be led by Italian Alessandro Ballan, who preceded Evans as world champion in 2008, with American George Hincapie, Dutchman Karsten Kroon and German Marcus Burghardt expected to play key roles.

At nearly 300km long, Milan-SanRemo is known as one of cycling’s five one-day ‘Monuments’ alongside the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Tour of Lombardy.

BMC team for Milan-SanRemo:
Alessandro Ballan (ITA), Brent Bookwalter (USA), Marcus Burghardt (GER), George Hincapie (USA), Karsten Kroon (NED), Jeff Louder (USA), Michael Schaer (SUI), Danilo Wyss (SUI).