Image of Garmin-Cervélo’s Tour squad becomes clearer
- By Neal Rogers
- Published Jun. 27, 2011
- Updated Jun. 28, 2011 at 7:46 PM EDT
American squad Garmin-Cervélo has not publicly announced its roster for the Tour de France, but the race’s organizer, ASO, appears to have scooped the team by sending out a preliminary start list Monday afternoon.
Related:
Though ASO clarified that the final team roster would be issued Thursday, June 30, its list of riders, which included several alternates for each team, appeared to be comprehensive.
ASO lists Garmin-Cervélo’s preliminary TDF squad as Tom Danielson (USA), Julian Dean (New Zealand), Tyler Farrar (USA), Ryder Hesjedal (Canada), Thor Hushovd (Norway), David Millar (Great Britain), Johan Vansummeren (Belgium), Christian Vande Velde (USA) and David Zabriskie (USA).
Alternates listed are Andreas Klier (Germany), Brett Lancaster (Australia), Cameron Meyer (Australia) and Ramunas Navardauskas (Lithuania).
Danielson, 33, is the only rider on the team riding his debut Tour; Dean, Hesjedal, Millar and Vande Velde have all started the race with Garmin every year since 2008.
Danielson, who has finished in the top-10 of the Vuleta a España on three occasions, earned his start with a podium finish at the Amgen Tour of California and a top-10 finish at the Tour de Suisse.
Perhaps the most surprising omission was Ireland’s Dan Martin. The 25-year-old climber had hoped to make his Tour debut on the basis of results such as his third overall at the Volta a Catalunya, behind winner Alberto Contador and ahead of Amgen Tour winner Chris Horner. In 2010 Martin won the overall of the Tour of Poland, and on Sunday Martin finished second at the Irish national road championship in a photo finish behind HTC-Highroad’s Matthew Brammeier.
The Garmin team heads to the Tour with four stated goals: winning sprint stages, with both Farrar and Hushovd; chasing the green points jersey; winning the team time trial; and placing both Vande Velde and Hesjedal in the top-10 on general classification.
Vande Velde finished fourth overall in 2008, and Hesjedal finished seventh overall in 2010.
FILED UNDER: News / Road / Tour de France TAGS: Garmin-Cervelo
Neal Rogers
An interest in all things rock 'n' roll led Neal into music journalism while attending UC Santa Cruz. After several post-grad years spent waiting tables, surfing and mountain biking, Neal moved to San Francisco, working stints as a bike messenger and at a software start-up. He moved to Colorado in 2001, taking an editorial internship at VeloNews. He never left, and is now Velo's editor in chief. When not traveling the world covering races, Neal can be found riding his bike, skiing, cooking, or attending a concert. Follow him on Twitter at @nealrogers.