Van Garderen up for Vuelta GC fight
Tejay van Garderen's last two appearances at the Vuelta a España has ended with a DNF against the American's name. Three stages in to the 2017 edition of the race and the BMC rider sits fourth overall and just two seconds behind race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky).
For van Garderen, it's a pleasant place to be after his GC titls at the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia have come unstuck in recent years. While van Garderen's 20th place overall at the Giro was down on his personal expectation, he saved his race with a stage win. The 29-year-old now finds himself within touching distance of his first Grand Tour leader's jersey and confident of sustaining a GC fight for the three weeks.
"It seems like everyday is a one day race. The TTT is always nervous, crosswinds yesterday, and today was already high mountains," said van Garderen. "I think me and (Nicolas) Roche we've shown that we were ready for the GC fight although we still have a long three weeks to go.
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"Today showed that we're going well as a team. It would have been nice to take the red jersey but I'm only two seconds back after a few tough stages and we've already gained some time on some other rivals. It's certainly a good place to be."
Winners of the opening day team time trial, BMC enjoyed a day in red with Rohan Dennis while Daniel Oss and Nico Roche enjoyed stints as the respective leaders of the combination and mountain classifications. Roche is tied on time with van Garderen and sits third overall but was disappointed to have missed on the race lead.
"After winning the team time trial, I was hoping that today was the day that I could have taken the red jersey. I had that in the back of my mind. Yesterday, losing those precious seconds was a big pain for today," said Roche.
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