Garderen in, Pereiro out of the Vuelta a Espana
Oscar Pereiro announced Wednesday that he would be missing the Vuelta a Espana due to a hand condition which has developed since a crash in the 2008 Tour de France and will require surgery before he will be able to train properly.
“The Vuelta is pretty much out of the question,” said Pereiro to El Faro de Vigo. “The race is only 10 days away and I can’t see any possibility of making it.”
The winner of the 2006 Tour de France, who is now riding for Team Astana, found his injury flaring up in the Tour of Poland and it has gotten to the point where he cannot grip the handlebars. The Spanish rider has been planning on retiring at the end of the season, but intended to bring his best performance to the Spanish Grand Tour as a curtain call to a successful career. If he still means to leave professionally cycling at the end of the year, his last competition will be the Valencia Criterium at the beginning of October.
HTC-Columbia in the Vuelta
Rolf Aldag, the manager of Team HTC-Colombia, has confirmed that Tejay Van Garderen will be on the team in the Spanish Grand Tour, but stressed that the young American is not being pressured.
“The Vuelta will be a learning process for Tejay,” said Aldag to Cyclingnews. “We have to be careful with a young rider like him. There was a lot of internal discussion in the team about whether or not to send him to the Vuelta. Of course he wants to show himself, but it’s a Grand Tour, it’s three weeks of racing and we don’t want to kill him.”
22-year-old Van Garderen has had a successful debut season with HTC-Columbia so far, including a podium finish at the Criterium du Dauphiné and a fourth-place at the Tour de l’Ain.
“It’s surprising how stable he’s been the whole season. Often a young, talented rider will perform well, race on a good level for a little bit and then disappear, but not Tejay,” said Aldag. “He started off well at the Volta ao Algarve and just continued from there. Obviously to finish third at the Dauphiné at that age is pretty unusual, but he’s a rider with that kind of potential. It’s his continuity that’s been the surprising part.”
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