Garmin-Slipstream’s Tour roster is starting to take shape.

By Brian Holcombe

Jonathan Vaughters’ Garmin-Slipstream squad has had it rough with injuries and illnesss for the first half of the season.

Injuries to team leaders, including Christian Vande Velde’s multiple fractures suffered in a stage 3 crash at the Giro d’Italia and David Millar’s severe shoulder injury on the final day of Paris-Nice, have created an oddly easy environment for roster selection in April and May. 

“So far this year,” the American team boss said wryly, “it hasn’t been hard for us to select teams because we’ve been up to ten guys down on injuries and illnesses, so we’re just sending who we can.”

Most prominent in many American fans’ minds is the status of Vande Velde, who finished fourth at the 2008 edition of Le Tour (after Bernard Kohl’s disqualification). 

Vande Velde will be at the start of the Tour de Suisse on Saturday, his first race since his crash early in the Giro.  And while Vaughters is not ready to name a long list for his Tour roster for a few more days, the nine-day Swiss race will provide a solid look at his team leader’s recovery ahead of the July 4 start in Monaco. 

“With Christian, I’m not going to really judge what he does the first two or three days,” Vaughters said. ”You have to look at last time trial at (Tour de) Suisse and that is going to be a good gauge of where he is.”

In an apt description of Vande Velde’s unknown status ahead of Saturday’s start in Switzerland, Vaughters described his leader as “a football that is 300 feet in the air and is going to come down and bounce one way or the other. We just don’t know which direction it will go.”

With the team’s overall leader in doubt ahead of the Tour, Vaughters remains optimistic.  The American squad is maintaining flexibility could compete for points jerseys or stage wins.  Detailing his squad’s multiple threats, Vaughters provided a glimpse of how his roster is developing.

“We’ll look to Tyler Farrar for stage wins and as a dark horse for the sprinters’ green jersey,” Vaughters said.  He also pimped the young Irishman Dan Martin for mountain stage wins in what would be the Tour debut for the nephew of Irish great Stephen Roche. Vaughters also included lead-out man Julian Dean and Ryder Hesjedal in discussing his Tour roster and is hopeful that Hesjedal shows good form at the Tour de Suisse to solidify his spot in France. 

And when discussing Millar, who could compete for stage wins and a run in the maillot jaune come July, Vaughters suggested, “It looks like he is coming back into the roaring David Millar form again.” 

Millar currently sits fourth overall at the Dauphine Libere, following Thursday’s stage on Mount Ventoux.  The Scot trails race leader Alejandro Valverde by 1 minute 43 seconds and showed great class over the grueling 154-kilometer stage that acts as a preview of the penultimate stage at this year’s Tour de France.

As the start of the Tour de France nears, the collective health of the Garmin-Slipstream squad is improving and the core Tour squad is injury and illness free at the moment. What remains unknown is how the fitness of riders coming back from forced vacations will look in early July. 

Vaughters is an optimist however, and looking ahead said, “I think we’re finally in a situation where we’re having to make good, tough choices, instead of just trying to scramble eight guys together.”

FILED UNDER: News / Road TAGS: Tour de Suisse