Tejay van Garderen (BMC) was forced to abandon the Tour de France during stage 17 while sitting in third place overall on Wednesday. The American cited a lingering illness, which was picked up four days earlier during stage 13, for the reason he struggled through the 161km stage from Digne-les-Bains to Pra-Loup, and eventually pulled out of the race on the Col de la Colle.
“I was fighting a little bit of a cold that I had picked up after stage 13, that day with the really intense heat, and for a while I was fine with the sniffles and not a big deal,” van Garderen said after the stage in a team audio recording. “It started getting a bit worse and on the rest day I was having some feverish symptoms and chills.
“I woke up in the morning today and I felt like the worst of it was on the rest day, and I had given my body a chance to recover. I felt hopeful and optimistic and I had a good night sleep and I felt ready to race, I felt closer to normal. But once I got out there, my muscles had no energy and I couldn’t push.
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“Straight away from the start, I knew this wasn’t good, and hopefully I could just hide and ride into it for a few kilometres and I would feel better but those sensations never came. Oh man, it is hugely disappointing.
At the start of stage 17, van Garderen was third place overall, 3:32 behind race leader Chris Froome (Sky) and just 22 seconds behind Movistar's Nairo Quintana. BMC Racing looked set to defend a top-three overall through the final stages in the Alps, and into Paris.
Asked if this was the most terrible day in his racing career to date, van Garderen said, “Yes, absolutely. To be fighting for a podium in the Tour de France and then the next day you are sitting in a car, it was hard. It was hard to look my teammates in the eyes, hard to call my wife and explain to her what was going on. It was a lot of emotions. It almost feels like I want to just disappear right now.”
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