Despite seeing his teammate Richie Porte lose 1:45 on stage 2 of the Tour de France, Tejay van Garderen stressed that the pair were still co-leaders at BMC Racing.
Porte suffered a puncture five kilometres from the finish and with the peloton racing at full tilt was unable to regain contact. He ended the stage with his GC ambitions severely dented while van Garderen crossed the line in 19th place but in the same time as stage winner and new race leader Peter Sagan (Tinkoff). The American remains on the same time as key rivals Chris Froome (Team Sky), Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Fabio Aru (Astana), while Alberto Contador conceded 48 seconds.
"Two minutes could mean nothing. Contador also lost time and the Tour is a marathon. Richie hopefully is able to stay strong in his head and keep fighting," van Garderen said as he warmed down outside the BMC bus.
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Porte skipped his post-race spin duties and talked to the media, calling the stage a disaster and agreeing that the two-pronged leadership dynamic may have shifted. Van Garderen, however, was not having any such talk and looked to pick his teammate up.
"I think that's a kneejerk reaction on his part. I still see us as co-leaders and equals and he will still be getting support on the road. He just needs to stay positive."
"We're co-leaders and anything can happen. We saw Contador lose time and he crashed yesterday, Richie lost a bit of time today and anyone of these next 19 days could be my turn for bad luck. We’ve got to keep Richie strong and focused and give him a bit of a morale boost tonight. It’s bad luck for him.”
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