Aspen’s Tejay Van Garderen has completed the first three stages of the 2015 Tour de France and currently sits in third place in the overall individual time classification, trailing 2013 Tour winner Chris Froome by 13 seconds.
The race opened with individual time trials on July 4 in Utrecht, Netherlands and saw Van Garderen’s BMC teammate Rohan Dennis set a new Tour record with the fastest ever average speed in an individual time trial at 55.446 kmph. Among the five riders who are heavy favorites to win the general classification, Van Garderen posted the best finish on the day, 42 seconds off Dennis’ record-setting pace.
Reigning Tour champion Vincenzo Naboli was next among the favorites, one second behind Van Garderen. Froome came in 50 seconds behind Dennis with two-time winner Alberto Contador in 58 seconds behind and Nairo Quintana trailing at 1:01.
Stage 2 provided the ceremonial start to the general classification race and over the 166 km course from Utrecht to Zelande, Van Garderen was able to pick up 12 places in the standings, despite seeing his overall time off the leader drop by an additional two seconds. Fabian Cancellara took the yellow jersey from Dennis, carrying just a three second lead on Tony Martin into Stage 3.
The third day on the road was delayed mid-race by a major pileup. Letour.com summarized it:
Approaching the first climb of the Tour de France, the côte de Bohisseau, the peloton was about to rejoin the breakaway riders when a big crash occurred. William Bonnet (FDJ), Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) and Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) were the first three riders forced to pull out. Yellow jersey wearer Fabian Cancellara (Trek) was also involved in the crash. Due to the extraordinary circumstances of the crash at a very high speed, the race was neutralized to allow the injured riders to be back in the peloton. Twenty five minutes after the crash, a new start was given at the top of the côte de Bohisseau with 50km to go.
That restart played to the benefit of Froome and Van Garderen, who finished first and third, respectively, in the overall after second- and sixth-place finishes for the stage, respectively.
Contador stayed with the leaders, avoiding the crash, and joins the Briton and American in the top ten in current overall standings. Niboli and Quintana also avoided the crash, but did not have the team support to help them heading into the final climb. They will begin Stage 4 in 13th and 17th place, respectively.
Stage 4 offers a chance for Niboli to climb back towards the top, as this stage features seven cobblestone sections. Niboli used a similar stage last year to his advantage.
As for Van Garderen, he’ll look for a similarly consistent ride in Stage 4, supported by his teammates at BMC, who currently lead the team classification.