Grand Tour rider aims to come back stronger in 2016
Image 1 of 5
Tejay van Garderen (BMC)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Tejay van Garderen abandoned the 2015 Tour during stage 17.
Tejay van Garderen in action during stage 17.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Tejay van Garderen faltered on the final climb and lost time to his GC rivals.(Image credit: Bettini)
Tejay van Garderen (BMC)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
BMC have confirmed that Tejay van Garderen will not be part of the team for this year’s world team time trial championships after fracturing his shoulder and suffering other injuries during the high-speed crash at the Vuelta a Espana on Saturday.
Kris Boeckmans (Lotto-Soudal), Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) and Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) also went down hard in the crash, which was apparently caused when Boeckmans hit a hole in the road while drinking from a bottle. He is in an induced coma in Spain after suffering facial injuries.
The BMC team confirmed that van Garderen suffered a fractured in the head of his right humerus in the shoulder area. He also has a contusion on the right side of his chest and he bruised his right lung.
Van Garderen was part of the BMC team than won the world title in Ponferrada, Spain in 2014 but his 2015 season is almost certainly over following his crash at the Vuelta.
“He did not break a rib, but in the impact, he had a high speed blow to his lung," the team’s chief medical officer Dr. Max Testa said. “The hospital will keep him overnight and Sunday morning, they will re-check if everything is good. As soon as he is able to travel, he will come back to the United States where we can make a plan for his recovery."
Van Garderen has endured a testing 2015 season that saw him exit both the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana mid-race. He showed signs he was a true Grand Tour contender by holding third overall in the Tour de France before a chest cold and infection forced him out of the race on stage 17. Earlier in the season he finished second overall in the Tour of Oman, won a stage at the Volta a Catalunya and was second overall at the Criterium du Dauphine. He was lying 16th overall when he crashed at the Vuelta, after losing more than a minute on stage seven to La Alpujarra.
Despite his setback, van Garderen promised to come back even stronger in 2016, when he will be joined at BMC by Australia’s Richie Porte.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
"I am really disappointed because I think I was prepared to do well in this Vuelta - and above all for my worlds preparation," the American said in a statement from the BMC team. "But I am also thinking it could be worst. So now my thinking is to recover well and come back mentally stronger.”
Van Garderen is the second BMC rider to succumb to injury at the Vuelta. Marcus Burghardt was unable to start Monday's stage after crashing and hurting his left knee and face on stage two.
