American Tejay Van Garderen comes up short in U23 time trial
American Tejay Van Garderen before the 2009 World Championships (Image credit: Gregor Brown)
Tejay Van Garderen (USA) was heavily fancied for at least a medal in the men's Under-23 time trial at the world championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland, but the 21-year-old, who will ride next season for Columbia-HTC, could only manage 12th.
Van Garderen was at a loss to explain his placing, beyond admitting that he struggled after the climb to regain his momentum. "After the hill I had trouble getting it rolling," he said, "but otherwise I liked the course and I felt OK.
"I didn't have a specific goal here," he added. "I'm focusing on both [the time trial and Saturday's road race], but I did better time trials [than Wednesday's] earlier in the year. And I think I prefer time trials when they're in the middle of a stage race."
Van Garderen will join Columbia-HTC team next year, after two seasons with the Rabobank Continental team. It is a move he describes as "an exciting new adventure with one of the best teams in the world. They've signed six guys who are under-23, so we will be a super young team, but with a lot of talent."
He also goes into the road race on Saturday buoyed by the strength of his American team. "We have a winning team," he said. "We have a strategy and a good idea of what we're going to do."
As for the world title-winning ride of Jack Bobridge - who will form part of a strong Australian team in Saturday's road race - Van Garderen was full of praise. "He was second at the track world championships behind Taylor Phinney [in the senior men's pursuit], so we knew he was very strong."
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Richard Moore is a freelance journalist and author. His first book, In Search of Robert Millar (HarperSport), won Best Biography at the 2008 British Sports Book Awards. His second book, Heroes, Villains & Velodromes (HarperSport), was long-listed for the 2008 William Hill Sports Book of the Year.
He writes on sport, specialising in cycling, and is a regular contributor to Cyclingnews, the Guardian, skyports.com, the Scotsman and Procycling magazine.
He is also a former racing cyclist who represented Scotland at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and Great Britain at the 1998 Tour de Langkawi
His next book, Slaying the Badger: LeMond, Hinault and the Greatest Ever Tour de France, will be published by Yellow Jersey in May 2011.
Another book, Sky’s the Limit: British Cycling’s Quest to Conquer the Tour de France, will also be published by HarperSport in June 2011.
