Tour Team News: Evans And Van Garderen Staying Safe

BMC’s Cadel Evans avoided yet another another crash inside the final three kilometers – the third in three days – at the Tour de France Thursday to keep his position in the top 10, while teammate Tejay van Garderen kept the white jersey as the race’s best young rider.

Van Garderen remains the BMC Racing Team’s top-placed rider in fourth overall, 10 seconds back of race leader Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan), while Evans is seventh (at 17 seconds).

The overall standings remained unchanged as André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol Team) won his second straight stage after a pile-up took down several riders on the run-in to Saint-Quentin in the 196.5 km race. Van Garderen said he has felt safe with a team around him that includes several experienced classics riders.

“I think we have a good classics team of guys who have all finished in the top 10 at Flanders and Roubaix (at one point in their careers), so I think we have the perfect team for that,” he said.

BMC Racing Team Directeur Sportif John Lelangue said the team’s approach in the first week has played a big part in keeping its leaders out of danger. “We’re riding in the front like a sprinter’s team, making a good train, and avoiding the risky zone,” he said. “We have one more stage tomorrow and then we come to the mountains. We still have the whole team here, nobody has crashed – except Philippe Gilbert on Stage 3 – but it was no problem. So I think we can be happy. If you look at the first week of the Tour it’s always a bit of risky business. So being in this situation is not a bad one at the moment.”