Two crashes in the final hour’s racing left Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) and his GC bid in the Vuelta a España teetering on the edge of disaster. But the American fought back tenaciously, suffered only minor injuries and stayed in the top four overall.
The first crash came after van Garderen managed to resist the blizzard of accelerations laid down by Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) on the final second category climb of the Puerto del Garbi. Van Garderen responded well, shadowing Chris Froome (Team Sky) as the Briton chased down Contador time after time.
"I felt great," the BMC team leader recounted later. "Obviously the pace was really hard, so I was on the limit. But when I looked back and saw the selection being made and I was part of it, I thought it was a good way to cement my spot on GC."
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Disaster struck when van Garderen became entangled in a crash with Movistar's Carlos Betancur, in almost the same spot where two other riders had just gone down.
"It was a bumpy road. I must have just hit something and the hands slipped off the bars, and it all happened kind of fast," Van Garderen said. "I'd have to watch the video to really see how it happened, but I don't want to watch the video. It'll kind of be a mystery about how it did.
"I knew the [team] car was going to be back, so I had to get back on the bike I was on but it was damaged," he recounted. "But then I had a bike change and then when we were off the descent, I thought, 'Now it's time to go into damage control.'"
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