After the setbacks of the Tour de France and his bad crash in last year's Vuelta a Espana, BMC Racing Team's Tejay Van Garderen has returned to the Spanish Grand Tour with a very different mindset to other seasons. One which, as he sees it, is different to any previous stage race he's done.
The American finished well below expectations in 29th place in the Tour de France, but last July arguably was even more disappointing, given Van Garderen was forced to abandon ill when he was on target for a podium finish. Van Garderen then had a first-week crash in the 2015 Vuelta, his comeback race, fracturing his shoulder in the same massive pile-up in Murcia that saw Belgian rider Kris Boeckmans (Lotto-Soudal) end up in hospital in a coma, and Dan Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) also pull out injured.
Now, having just turned 28, Van Garderen is back in the Vuelta for a third time - he also finished 34th in the Vuelta in what was his first-ever three week stage race in 2010 for HTC. But as the BMC Racing Team rider told a small group of reporters on Thursday afternoon, he plans on tackling the Spanish Grand Tour differently this time around.
ADVERTISEMENT
"This Vuelta has been an entirely different approach to just about any I've ever done," Van Garderen said. "The goal is not going to be GC, so that's an entirely different scenario to anything I'm used to.
"The GC for us will be for Samu' [Sanchez, BMC teammate] and I'm going to do what I can to help him and also hunt for breakaways."
"Really it's about getting two Grand Tours in one season in the legs, to help me build the edge and maybe give me a bit more depth going into next season.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2bqAXUt
No comments:
Post a Comment