Following a quiet start to the season at the Abu Dhabi Tour – and a winter of public speculation over his apparent Grand Tour rut – Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) won't put a number on what will constitute a successful Giro d'Italia campaign.
The Abu Dhabi Tour, with its newly-minted WorldTour status, attracted some of the world's best climbers despite there being only a single 15-km hilltop finish at Jebel Hafeet for them to test their legs in an otherwise flat race.
It was on that ascent that Van Garderen was left disappointed with his season debut, as he went out too quickly and then lost contact with the main group, which comprised Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and other likely Giro contenders in May.
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"I was confident, I was ready to race, I had the team put me in a good position," said Van Garderen, who revealed he was suffering from a cold. "They did a perfect job, they really ramped it up at the start of the climb and kind of put me in the red. Normally I can go into the red and then, once it settles down, recover and regain the rhythm. But this time I went into the red and just kind of blew up.
"You can chalk that down to either the bug, or maybe just it being my first race. I don't want to make excuses. I'm not happy with my performance but at the same time I'm also not panicking because I know I put in a good winter. I'm confident in the work that I did up until this point."
Van Garderen was heralded as a successor to Tour de France champion Cadel Evans when he joined BMC but has been unable to reprise the form he produced to take two fifth overall places finishes, in 2012 and 2014. This year he has left the Tour to teammate Richie Porte.
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