JUYONGGUAN, China — If seeing the 2,000-year-old Great Wall ascending into the heavens as he raced didn’t make Christian Vande Velde feel like he was on the far side of the world Saturday, the heights his cycling career has taken him this year certainly should.
His wild journey has propelled the rising star of Boulder-based Team Garmin-Chipotle to the elite of the international cycling world, Saturday notwithstanding. His third-place finish in the Tour of California and fifth place in last month’s Tour de France didn’t transpire into an Olympic medal here.
Then again, in conditions that were more appropriate for African violets, the Olympic men’s road race was more a contest of attrition than ambition. Vande Velde finished 17th, 30 seconds behind gold medal winner Samuel Sanchez of Spain.
Still, he will enter 2009 as a legitimate contender for Grand Tour podiums, far different from his status as a former domestique rising in class with Garmin as he entered 2008.
“I’m really looking forward to next year’s Tour,” he said. “My confidence showed even here in the Olympic road race.”
Vande Velde has already been mentioned as a major contender for next year’s Tour de France, even though it will also attract Spain’s Alberto Contador, the 2007 Tour winner, and American Levi Leipheimer, the two-time Tour of California champion, both off the Astana team that wasn’t invited to this year’s Tour but will be next year.
Spain’s Carlos Sastre, who finished 49th here Saturday, will be 34; Vande Velde will be 33 and heading into his prime.
“I was surprised to be fifth but late in the race I wasn’t surprised anymore,” Vande Velde said. “I wanted more than fifth. The more I raced, the more I gained confidence and security.”
Near the end of Saturday’s race, he appeared poised to add an Olympic medal to his 2008 haul.
Vande Velde was in the front of the peloton 300 yards behind fading leader Jerome Pineau of Austria going into the last of seven 14.3-mile loops around a track skirting the Great Wall. Sanchez, silver medalist Davide Rebellin of Italy and bronze medalist Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland made a breakaway and passed Pineau but the peloton never challenged.
Sanchez finished the 152.5-mile course, which started at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, in 6:29.49, with Vande Velde finishing in the second chase group 30 seconds back.
“I was maybe a little too far back on the initial attack,” Vande Velde said. “I really thought we were going to come back … but there were too many teammates of teammates up there and a little bit of cat and mouse.”
The race — in Juyongguan, named for the section of the Wall closest to Beijing — drew reporters eager to hear how the Games’ first endurance racers handled the pollution.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
