News: Van Garderen Second at Ruta del Sol

2015_CONTI_Banner_TourSeries

Tejay van Garderen has continued his tradition of opening the season on the podium, finishing in second place at Ruta del Sol.

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

News: Van Garderen Second at Ruta del Sol

Tejay van Garderen has continued his tradition of opening the season on the podium, finishing in second place at Ruta del Sol. Van Garderen started the final stage in the leader’s jersey after taking the win in the Individual Time Trial on stage 4, but the stage win and overall race win was secured by Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) who attacked on the final ascent of the Alto Penas Blancas climb.

A late comeback by van Garderen saw him finish fourth on the stage and claim second overall, 26 seconds behind Valverde. Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) rounded out the podium in third place.

“I picked my moment with about 3km to go and tried to put my head down and claw back enough time to keep the jersey, but it wasn’t to be. Hats off to Valverde, that was a good move. He pulled it off with a lot of guts, it was impressive,” van Garderen said after the stage.

“The team showed that we were really strong. We have a couple of lessons to take away from this but in the end I think we showed that we are all in good shape and we’re motivated and ready to take on the next challenge.”

AlpsCyclesMidstory

Damiano Caruso held onto his lead in the King of the Mountain classification and BMC Racing Team finished the five-stage race as the best team, capping off a successful first time at Ruta del Sol.

“I’m really happy to have won the King of the Mountain classification. It’s a great way to start my season and I hope to continue with these kind of results this year,” Caruso said.

BMC Racing Team kicks off the Classics campaign in Belgium with Het Nieuwsblad in one week’s time, where Philippe Gilbert will be an important leader for the team. “Ruta del Sol was a great race to prepare for the Classics. We always need to be better and better every week, that’s the goal. After a good week of racing here, I think that If I can recover well, I can do well in the coming weeks,” Gilbert explained.

2016_Feb_Caspv2

 

Send your results as well as club, team & event news here

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

Tags: