Team News – Chaotic Day for BMC

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BMC’s Tejay van Garderen among several Tour de France contenders who are now more than two minutes off the overall following stage 5 of the Tour

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Team News – Chaotic Day for BMC

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On a day when defending Tour de France champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) withdrew from the race after falling, van Garderen also hit the ground during a stage featuring seven cobblestone sections comprising 13.4 kilometers of the 155.5-kilometre race.

“My rear wheel just kind of got away from me,” van Garderen said. “It was insane out there. I heard Froome was out of the Tour. That kind of takes the whole race down a notch when you have a big favorite who is now out.”

Van Garderen finished 31st, 2:28 behind Lars Boom (Belkin Pro Cycling), who soloed away from race leader Vincenzo Nibali and his Astana Pro Team teammate, Jakob Fuglsang, on the final stretch of cobblestones to win by 19 seconds. Nibali’s third-place finish saw him increase his lead from two seconds over van Garderen to 2:11. “It could have been worse, it could have been better,” van Garderen said. “We will just have to move forward.”

BMC’s Greg Van Avermaet, who was also sitting two seconds off the lead before the stage, finished 13:25 back, in 97th place. “I crashed just before the first cobblestone section,” he said. “I made it back before the second one but I was too far behind in the peloton. With this rain, you can never move up on the cobblestones. So my race was already over then and I took it easy to the finish.”

BMC Racing Team Sport Director Max Sciandri was optimistic about the team’s performance and van Garderen’s 12th place on the general classification. “Today could have been a day when we could have either been right on the top or right on the bottom,” he said. “I would say we were somewhere in between the middle – maybe a little better than the middle. If we look at the GC right now, we are good.”

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