Danny Pate of Colorado Springs was named to the Tour de France roster of Boulder-based Team Garmin-Chipotle Tuesday, making him one of only four Americans in the race.
Pate, 29, joins teammates Christian Vande Velde of Lemont, Ill., and Will Frischkorn of Charlottesville, Va., as three-quarters of the American roster in the three-week race that begins July 5 in Brest, France.
Pate is one of four Garmin riders who also competed in last month’s Giro d’Italia. His strong performance in Italy pushed him onto the Tour roster as he helped Garmin win the team time trial and also placed sixth in the individual time trial.
“By finishing the Giro, he’s obviously a lot stronger,” team director Jonathan Vaughters said from the team training base in Girona, Spain. “He really suffered the whole time but the last day he did real well. I could see this change. He can compete with the best in the world. I’ve never seen that in Danny before.”
Earlier this season, Pate won the Tour of Georgia time trial and a year ago won Stage 5 at the Tour of Missouri. Vaughters said Pate could surprise people in France.
“There’s a month and a half between the Giro and the Tour and in training he’s so much more focused,” Vaughters said. “I have big hopes for Danny in the Tour. I see him in a lot of breakaways and maybe I could see a stage win.”
The other six members of the Tour roster are Magnus Backstedt of Sweden, Julian Dean of New Zealand, Ryder Hesjedal of Canada, Trent Lowe of Australia, Martijn Maaskant of the Netherlands and David Millar of Scotland.
David Zabriskie of Salt Lake City, who has won stages in the tours of France, Italy and Spain, was left off the roster due to a cracked vertebra he suffered on the second day of the Giro.
Also out is Tom Danielson, the Durango resident who, Vaughters said, is still is only 80 percent back from reconstructive surgery on his shoulder and two ruptured discs in his back.
“He’s up and down,” Vaughters said. “He’s certainly not ready for the Tour yet. We’ve got to give him a little more time. We’ll put him in some hard races.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
