Andrew Talansky’s slow start to this year’s cycling season was a sign the 26-year-old American with Cannondale-Garmin was either underprepared or just quietly building momentum headed into the Tour de France.
Unfortunately for him and his Boulder-based squad, it may have been a bit of both. Sunday, Talansky finished 11th overall in the general classification — and was the top American — after the 21st and final stage of the 102nd Tour, a largely celebratory ride into Paris and along the Champs-Élysées. It marked the end of three weeks of punishing racing on windswept roads in northern France and the Netherlands and steep ascents through the Pyrenees and Alps in the country’s south.
“Andrew rode a very gutsy and honorable Tour, but he didn’t have the momentum needed from races earlier in the year, he lacked punch when it mattered to go top five,” Cannondale-Garmin manager Jonathan Vaughters told The Denver Post on Sunday. “It’ll be interesting to see if he can use his effort at the Tour to succeed in the Vuelta later on in August.”
Talansky was one of two Americans left in the peloton after part-time Aspen resident Tejay van Garderen dropped out in Stage 17 while in third place overall because of exhaustion brought on by a respiratory illness. MTN-Qhubeka’s Tyler Farrar who finished 154th overall, more than 4½ hours behind yellow jersey winner Chris Froome, was the other American.
Try as the team did with its three leaders — Talansky, Dan Martin and Ryder Hesjedal — Cannondale-Garmin ended this year’s Tour without a stage win. The squad gathered one fourth-place finish, one third-place finish and three runner-up finishes. Vaughters said he gave this Tour a B grade for his team.
Cannondale-Garmin’s final effort Saturday up Alpe d’Huez — the most revered and famous climb in the sport — netted Hesjedal a third-place finish in the stage, 41 seconds back of winner Thibaut Pinot of France. On numerous occasions, when it appeared Hesjedal had cracked, he maintained the punishing pace up the switchbacks before getting passed by Pinot and eventual Tour runner-up Nairo Quintana of Colombia. Hesjedal, dealing himself with less-than-ideal form after racing at the Giro d’Italia, was also battling sickness at the Tour.
“The effort was there, the planning, the work, just the cards didn’t fall our direction a few times, which limited our performances,” Vaughters said of his squad’s performance.
The squad will now prepare for the final grand Tour of the season, the Vuelta a Espana in August, and is expected to race in the fifth USA Pro Challenge in Colorado (Aug. 17-23). For the near term, though, the team will be looking back at this Tour de France not as a failure, but one that didn’t meet its lofty expectations of placing Talansky in the top five or six overall.
“We can always improve,” Vaughters said. “The specifics of that will take some time to unpack and analyze.”
Daniel Petty: 303-954-1081, dpetty@denverpost.com or
