| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Tejay van Garderen | ||
| Born | August 12, 1988 Tacoma, United States |
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| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||
| Weight | 148 lb (67 kg) | ||
| Team information | |||
| Current team | BMC Racing Team | ||
| Discipline | Road | ||
| Rider type | Stage Racing/Time Trialing | ||
| Amateur team(s) | |||
| 2007 | VMG Racing/USA National Team | ||
| Professional team(s) | |||
| 2008–2009 2010–2011 2012– |
Rabobank Continental Team HTC-Columbia BMC Racing Team |
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| Major wins | |||
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| Infobox last updated on January 1, 2012 |
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Tejay van Garderen (born August 12, 1988 in Tacoma, Washington) is an American professional cyclist for BMC Racing Team.[1] He lives in Lucca, Tuscany, during the season.[2]
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Tejay van Garderen was born in Tacoma, Washington, but spent most of his childhood up in Bozeman, Montana. He is of Dutch descent. He began riding at 10. By 14, he nearly beat two hours at the Mount Evans hillclimb, a 28-mile climb gaining nearly 7,000 feet.[3] He won 10 junior national titles in road (road race, criterium and TT) and cyclo-cross.[4] Two of his early teams were the Team Rio Grande Racing developmental squad (2004–2005; Fort Collins, CO)[5] and Team 5280 Magazine developmental squad (2005–2006, now part of Garmin-Cervelo; Boulder, CO) [6]
Van Garderen's first big senior race was at age 18 in the 2007 Amgen Tour of California as a part of the national team. He pulled out on stage 4.[7] He rode in the U.S. and Europe in 2007 and came 20th in the Tour de l'Avenir
Van Garderen joined Rabobank Continental in 2008. He lived in the Netherlands and came second in the Flèche du Sud and Circuito Montañes. He won a stage of the Tour de l'Avenir and came 24th in the Under-23 world road championship in Varese, Italy
Van Garderen came 1st, 3rd, 1st and 2nd in consecutive stages in 2009. His season with high expectations in the Tour de l'Avenir. Two French riders, including a favorite, Romain Sicard, gained 1m 30s on the peloton in the first stage. Van Garderen ended up 2nd overall with one stage remaining. Romain Sicard looked sure to win but he was docked 2 minutes for an illegal bike change and his lead dropped to a second, but enough to keep van Garderen from the biggest win of his career.
Van Garderen joined Team HTC-Columbia the following year.[8]
Van Garderen came to a team with most wins in 2009 thanks to sprinters Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel. He finished 9th in his first stage race, the Volta ao Algarve, climbing to 5th place on the stage to the Alto do Malhao summit. In the 2010 Tour of Turkey, he came second on two stages and second overall, 29 seconds behind Giovanni Visconti.
Van Garderen supported leader Michael Rogers over the 6th and 8th stages of the 2010 Tour of California. He finished 28th overall and Rogers won.
Van Garderen started the 2010 Critérium du Dauphiné as joint leader of HTC-Columbia with Kanstantsin Siutou and Peter Velits. After nearly upsetting Alberto Contador in the prologue, he came 4th in the Stage 3 time trial to move to 2nd overall. He lost time on mountain stages and finished 3rd.
Van Garderen rode a strong Vuelta a Espana with having a very strong first 2 weeks of the race. He fell off after that but was still a valuable domestique to Peter Velits, who went on to a third place overall in the race.
In 2011, Van Garderen got second place on stage 3 of the Volta ao Algarve [9] and second place in the opening time trial in the Tour of Switzerland (behind Fabian Cancellara).[10] His strong showing in the 2011 Tour of California also earned him the best young rider jersey. He is part of the 2011 Tour de France squad. This is Van Garderen's first Tour de France and he will be riding in support of Tony Martin and Peter Velits.[11] In the 8th Stage, Van Garderen won enough points on the Category 2 climb to earn a King of the Mountain jersey and Most Aggressive Rider honors. He was the first American to wear the King of the Mountain jersey in the history of the Tour de France (Greg LeMond briefly led the mountains classification during the 1986 Tour de France, but since he was also the overall leader at the time, he did not wear the mountains jersey). During his dramatic stage 8 ride, he was referred to as the "Bozeman Boss" by commentator Phil Liggett[12] At the Tour of Utah, Van Garderen won the time trial in the third stage.[13]
After HTC-Highroad was disbanded, van Gardren joined BMC Racing Team along with his HTC team-mate Marco Pinotti.[1]
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