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Tejay Van Garderen to make Vuelta attempt

  • Ron 

Tejay Van Garderen, who was having a very successful run at the podium in this year’s Tour de France before being sidelined by illness late in the race, will return to the Grand Tour stage at the Vuelta a Espana, starting on August 22nd.

Van Garderen and Samuel Sánchez will headline the BMC Racing Team’s roster for the last Grand Tour of the season, President/General Manager Jim Ochowicz announced Wednesday.

This will be Van Garderen’s first appearance in the Vuelta since 2010. He withdrew from the Tour de France last week due to illness while sitting third overall. Sánchez, runner-up at the Vuelta in 2009 and third in 2007, was the BMC Racing Team’s top finisher at the Tour de France, in 12th place.

“Due to his illness and withdrawal from this year’s Tour de France, we had an opportunity to reconsider what was best for Tejay in the coming months,” Ochowicz said. “The management team supports Tejay’s decision to participate in this year’s Vuelta.”

The three-week race begins August 22 with a 7.4-kilometer team time trial in Porto Banus.

Van Garderen said he was initially hesitant about competing in the Vuelta, because it conflicts with the USA Pro Challenge, the race in Colorado he has won the past two years.

“But after looking at the route and considering what happened at the Tour, all things just seemed to point in the direction that the Vuelta was the path to take,” he said. “The more I have thought about it, the more excited I am about doing it. It is a great new challenge.

“This is 100 percent my decision. It would be nice to go out and try to win the USA Pro Challenge again. But after what happened at the Tour, I need to prove myself on a bigger scale.”

Sánchez finished a BMC Racing Team-best sixth at last year’s Vuelta. He announced last week that he signed a contract extension with the BMC Racing Team for the 2016 season.

“I think Samuel is going to be motivated to do his own GC (general classification) there,” van Garderen said. “I definitely do not have time to prepare for it the same way I did for the Tour de france, doing the reconnaissance, etc. But I am absolutely going to show up motivated. I am not going to give anything away.”

Among those joining Sánchez and van Garderen on the BMC Racing Team’s roster is Peter Velits, runner-up at the Vuelta a España in 2010, and 2014 Tour de France “most aggressive rider” Alessandro De Marchi.

Roster:
Darwin Atapuma (COL), Marcus Burghardt (GER), Alessandro De Marchi (ITA), Jempy Drucker (LUX), Amaël Moinard (FRA), Joey Rosskopf (USA), Samuel Sánchez (ESP), Tejay van Garderen (USA), Peter Velits (SVK).

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